A Second Chance
by ForeverAlways1114
Summary: Matt has everything he could ever wish for. The grades, the girl, and is the sports MVP. Then Matt starts having dreams of a half-vampire prince, but what does it mean. Destiny is calling Matt, be ready when it comes.
1. Chapter 1

A Second Chance

Rating-T

Disclaimer- don't own Cirque du Freak, Darren Shan does. The beginning is from book 12.

A/N-Just a beginning to set the stage please review and tell me if you like it. If you read my other stories I know I haven't written in a while, but I need to get my writing juices flowing before I go back to it.

Chapter 1-Picture Perfect

_There is blood everywhere, my stomach is in pain and I am falling. Suddenly I am engulfed by darkness, a darkness that was light. A chill that burnt. One final flutter of my eyelids, barely a movement, impossible tiring. And then, in the lovely watery darkness of the river, as all must do when the grim reaper calls, I died. _

I jolt out of bed in a cold sweat and breathing heavily. As quickly as possible, I run into the bathroom and throw some water onto my face while taking deep breaths. I look at my reflection and splash more water on my face.

"Snap out of it Matt," I tell myself, "it was just a dream. I am here alive, not dead." Only now that I am thinking about it what was the dream about anyway? All I remember is darkness and death, but there has to be more, right?

I glance at the clock, it is only 4:00, and I still have time to sleep. So, quietly walk downstairs, grab a midnight snack before I get back into bed, and fall asleep.

The next time I wake up it is because my Mom is yelling at me to get up and get ready for school. I groan at her, but that just causes her to physically get me out of bed.

"Hey!"

"Sorry Matt but the bus will be here in half an hour and you can't be late."

"FIVE MORE MINUTES!"

"No mister get up now!"

"Fucking school," I mumble so Mom will not hear me, but I get out of bed anyway and go into the bathroom to brush my teeth. I walk into the bathroom and look at the sink, its wet. Just then, my dream comes rushing back to me and I shiver. Oh, well if I do die today then at least I can get out of my math test.

After I'm dressed, I come running down the stairs and almost trip on Fluffy, our cat. She hisses at me and bites my toe. I kick her and she runs away. Dumb cat! She hates me! I told Dad I wanted a pet wolf or at least a dog instead of a cat, but no we get Fluffy, the world's nicest cat until she sees me. The feeling of hatred is mutual.

I walk into the kitchen where Dad is reading the paper and Mom is making Sarah her breakfast. Sarah is my little 9-year-old sister. She annoys me like crazy, but I love her anyway.

Sarah is sitting there giggling when she sees me and then suddenly stops.

"Sarah what did you do?" I ask.

"Nothing! Why would you think I did anything?"

"You have that look on your face."

"I pinky promise I didn't do anything! Mom make him stop," she cries.

"Matt make your breakfast and go wait outside before something bad happens, okay?"

"Whatever" I make myself a piece of toast and a pickled tomato, grab my backpack and run out the door. When I get outside, I eat my breakfast. The bus pulls up and I walk on eating my tomato.

I go and sit next to my friend Sam. "Hey," I greet him

"Hey, I see you are still eating that shit."

"There not shit! Pickled tomatoes are amazing, "I defend myself. "At least I don't eat gallons of pistachio ice-cream"

"Pistachio ice cream is the ice cream of kings so shut the fuck up!" He takes a fake swing at me and I easily block him. We both start cracking up and laugh most of the ride to school.

A few minutes later, the bus pulls up to Roosevelt High School home of the fighting Boars or as I like to call it the place of my death. I am 14, a freshman here and am dreading having to go here for another 3 ½ years!

It is not that I mind school that much; it is just that school not so much fun and all. But hey, my grades are okay, I have a 3.6 GPA. And I am captain of the JV football team and I am going to tryout for wrestling. Actually, tryouts are later today.

The bell rings and I walk into biology where Mr. Smith begins to talk about random crap on the digestive system. I do not really pay attention.

After that, I have math where we have a test. Math and English are my only two subjects I struggle with

Seriously why do I need to know the square root of -129!

Luckily, after I failed that test I have gym with my friends Anna and Sam. I get into the locker room where Sam is opening my locker.

"Sam get the hell put of my locker!"

"Bite me."

"Gladly!" I go up to him and position my teeth at his jugular when Coach Pearson (the football coach) yells at us. I move my head away and Coach smiles. All three of us laugh.

Sam pulls my deodorant out of my locker, "I was going to switch it with jasmine scented!"

"Dick," I hit him.

We change and walk outside onto the field when I hear someone coming up behind me and it is Anna.

"I see you Anna."

"Come on Matt let me scare you once!" she whines. I laugh.

"Then be stealthier."

"Hey you surprised me," Sam chimed in.

"Yeah Matt you just have like super hearing or something," Anna complains.

"It's more of a feeling then hearing."

Our teacher calls us over and we break up into teams for soccer. I am captain along with Brian.

Brian is this huge 7-foot senior who hates me. He is also my friend Lindsay's brother. Brian has a delusion that I am in love with Lindsay. This is ridiculous because Lindsay is going out with my friend Dylan.

After gym, I walk out smiling because my team won.

My next class is my favorite class, history! History is amazing because right now we are discussing wars. War is absolutely my favorite thing to study! Just hearing about how people kill each other and the motives behind it is so fun to learn. Does that make me a nerd?

We are all talking when Mr. Morno walks in and quiets us down. "Okay class today you guys are all going to get assigned a partner and have 2 weeks to turn in a project on any history topic you want and must present it to the class.

Luckily, my partner is Dylan so I should do great and thankfully am not stuck with some loser like Gertrude.

Lunch comes and goes too quickly. I end up playing football for the majority of it.

My afternoon classes pass by in a flash and the next thing I know I am in the locker room changing for wrestling tryouts.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Tryouts

Rating-T

Disclaimer- don't own Cirque du Freak, Darren Shan does.

AN-the grammar mistake that is repeated is intended, if you read the book you will get it

I have to admit, I have never actually wrestled before, except when I'm messing around for fun. Of course me and Dylan had to be idiots and decided it would be better than indoor track or swimming. Then of course our basketball team hasn't won a game in five years, so wrestling it is.

Dylan slaps me on the back, "You ready bro?"

"When am I not ready?"

"Well you sure as well look ready. Just don't think of me to do anything on," Dylan winks at me.

"Asshole!"

"You know you love me."

"Dudes," Sam steps between us, "chill. Matt's just on edge cause he's scared he won't be MVP like he was in football. Unlike you and I Dylan, Matt isn't big enough to wrestle."

I roll my eyes, "I'm not that small."

"Yeah, you're only like five six."

"So what, I am still way better and more muscular than you guys!" I get punched for that.

The coach blows the whistle and we laugh before we hurry up and change before running out into the gym to tryout.

Standing with everyone else, it does show that I'm definitely shorter than others. However because of my weight, I'm in a higher weight class. Not that it matters, but my friends do tend to tease me about it.

"Okay everyone," Coach yells, "get in line near the scale. I will then put you all into pairs and you can guess the rest."

He blows his whistle and we all do as we are told.

Half an hour later we are all standing watching other people wrestle, waiting for it to be our turn. Dylan and Sam get paired together. Sam wins. I know Dylan is pissed. He always wants to be the best. I beat him in football; Sam just beat him in a match. It may just be one but Dylan doesn't think that way.

Coach calls my name and I take a deep breath before stepping onto the mat. Across from me, I see Bill, a senior who also happens to have won the division last year. We look in each other's eyes and I swear he growls at me.

The second we begin I know that wrestling will never be my sport. Bill is better than me, and then my back is on the floor. One…two… before coach gets to three a red haze covers my vision and suddenly I'm not pinned any more.

The coach blows his whistle and it ends. Coach comes up and grabs the hand of the victor. Me.

Everyone around me high fives me, but I can't even pay any attention. I just beat a guy who hasn't lost in three years. I've never wrestled in my life. I want to know how the hell I did what I did, and I don't think it was simply natural talent.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Smile for the Camera

Rating-T

Disclaimer- don't own Cirque du Freak, Darren Shan does.

AN-sorry for the wait, but please review. And also the huge grammar mistake I keep making was made on purpose. If you read the books you would understand why I made it.

Coach tells us that the results will be posted on the door tomorrow morning before dismissing us to leave. My friends and me go into the dressing room to change and everyone is still congratulating me.

The locker room is still buzzing with noise, so loud you can barely hear yourself think, when suddenly I hear someone breathing down my neck, I turn around to see Bill standing there.

"Nice match, loser," Dylan yells at Bill. I give him a look and he puts his head down.

Bill growls, "It was a one-time thing, don't get used to it punk."

"You're just pissed because you lost," Dylan continues to taunt him. "And I bet you are too scared to fight Matt again now too."

"Punk. I'll face him again, this time in a real fist to fist fight and I will win. What do you say Matt, you and me tomorrow during lunch?"

"Umm," I stutter. Everyone starts whispering words of encouragement and suddenly I get dizzy and see a purple haze surrounding Bill. "Deal, but be prepared to lose."

"Wanna bet? When I win you have to carry my books around for a week and rub my feet and bring me snacks!"

"Fine but when I win you have to quit wrestling and join the cheer squad." Bill glares at me and nods before walking away.

He leaves and Dylan, Sam, and me start to walk home. Dylan pats me on the back and Sam shakes his head at me.

"Dude are you insane?"

"Sam why would I be insane?"

"You won once, okay whatever. But can you really beat him again?"

"I don't know," I sigh. "But I can't not try and lose my dignity man. I'd rather lose with honor." Where did that thought come from? If I fight I may die! Screw honor and what not my life is way more important than that!

I say goodbye to my friends when we reach my house and walk inside to see my family dressed in matching clothing and smiling at me.

"How were tryouts Matt?" Dad asks me.

"Good, "I say before being cut off by Mom.

"Not now! Matt get dressed we have to get to the photographers in a half an hour!"

"Okay Mom, sheesh." Sarah laughs at me as I run up the stairs and get dressed quickly. I can't believe I forgot about family pictures today. Thankfully I managed to make it home when I did. If I had decided to grab a bite to eat after tryouts like Dylan wanted to, I would have been grounded for months.

I run down the stairs and catch up with the rest of my family in the car. Before I can even shut the door my Dad pulls away and speeds down the road mumbling nonsense about how I better not of just made them late.

The thing about my Dad is that everything always has to be perfect and nothing can ever go wrong. He likes to imagine that things follow his little fancy dreams. Not that my family isn't pretty great, we are, but there is no such thing as a perfect family. Dad also expects excellence out of me. I barely get B's and have the best GPA out of my close friends, but since it is not perfect Dad gets mad. He's proud of me, but still wishes I did better. Oh and I get grounded for anything below an 85%. But luckily when I get anything above a 95% I get paid. And since I usually get around a 92% I'm still good.

In my Mom's eyes I am the perfect little son who can do no wrong. I am truly the apple of her eye. I play that to my advantage too by asking her for stuff and not my Dad. The thing about my Mom though is that she needs to be early to everything. If we are on time, we are late. It annoys the hell out of me because she drilled her anxiety into me since I was little so now I freak about being late.

A few minutes later, as Sarah is finishing telling us how she taught her friend how to braid hair during recess, we pull up to the photographers and thankfully walk into the place 3 minutes early so Mom doesn't blow a gasket.

Mom and Dad go and check us in and Sarah pulls my jacket so I look at her, "Do you think we're going to do a lame family portrait again?"

I ruffle her hair making her glare at me, "Of course when do we not get one. You've never complained before?"

She takes a brush out of her little pink purse and brushes her hair, "Well there's this boy who saw a picture of all of us on my collage and I don't want to be teased."

"Sarah he just likes you," I chuckle.

"Nuh uh! He pushes me down whenever we play tag."

"See he does like you! When you're 9 that's how guys show that."

"Well I would much prefer to get lots of carrots! Next time you like a girl pick out the biggest most orange carrot and don't push her. Daddy said that's why Mommy likes him."

"You mean karats."

"Matttttt, that's what I said!"

"No you didn't. You said carrot as in the vegetable. I said karat as in the size of gems. When Dad said he bought Mom karats he meant big diamonds."

"Oh," she says and smiles. "So does that mean that Blaine is going to buy me diamonds?"

"Sorry Sarah I don't think most kids your age have the money for that." She frowns and I laugh at her. She steps on my foot and starts to laugh before turning to the mirror next to us and fixes her lipstick.

She always helps me feel better when I'm upset due to dicks like Bill. Something about her innocence calms me down. I remember being 9 and having the same talk with Dad about buying jewelry to make girls like you. He told me that a girl's best friend is a diamond. At the time I told him it was dumb because Madison Smith's best friend was a girl named Lily not a girl named Diamond.

Being young was so easy.

My thoughts are interrupted as Dad walks over and pulls us into the back where a photographer has us follow her into a studio. She tells us how cute we all look in our matching gray and blue plaid. The girl, who said her name, was Amy, winks at me and I smile back.

First Mom and Dad get a picture together with Sarah then after a few takes of that Sarah gets one by herself. This time the photographer takes about two hundred. Some with props, some without, some I one pose, some in another pose.

Amy calls me forward and gets me to pull Sarah onto my shoulders. I do and she takes a few shots of that before getting us to switch poses. In one she is on my back and we are lying down. In another we're hugging. My favorite was when she had my sister on a tall stool looking down at me.

Mom and Dad join us for a family portrait and once that was done she goes to grab another camera and the rest of my family go to the bathroom while I finish getting my picture taken.

Amy comes back and smiles at me, "Okay Matt was it?" I nod. "Okay you seem photogenic so do whatever feels right," she giggles.

Smiling at her flirtatious nature I cross my arms and smirk at the camera with my signature half smile that Lindsay and Anna say knock all the girls out.

It seems to have the same effect on Amy as she giggles more as she takes more shots. This is ridiculous, she's cute and all but her laughter is frickin annoying! She looks at her camera, "Can you take one without your contact?"

"Why," I ask awkwardly not wanting to tell her that I don't have contacts on.

She glances through the camera again, "Never mind my camera had a smudge. I have some great pictures," she says smiling.

"Thanks."

"No seriously you sure you aren't a model?"

"Damn it you caught me! I have a secret double life as an underwear model!"

She giggles again and I try my best not to cover my ears in pain. "I'm not kidding, you should be. These pictures make you look nummy."

"Um thanks I guess."

"Tell you what I get off early on Friday we can go to the movies."

I take a step back, "Sorry I would but um, I don't know you and I'm pretty sure I'm a lot younger than you."

"It's okay we can get to know each other and I'm only two years older than you. I see you around school all the time."

Before I can answer her my parents and Sarah walk back into the room, thus saving me from the rest of this awkward conversation. I hate going out anywhere anymore since the upperclassmen made a bet to see who could ask me out first. At first it was really cool, but now it's just annoying. They all think I'm so great since I'm the only freshman ever from our school to be the starting quarterback and the captain. If you like me that's fine, but there's no way I'm going to be part of some bet.

We go out into the lobby to look at our pictures and to pick the ones we want. Of course all of the ones of Sarah are adorable and Mom and Dad can't pick just one. I tune them out since I don't really care which ones of me get picked and go wait outside.

Ten minutes later everyone joins me and we walk into the restaurant next door to eat while our pictures are being developed. So we sit down at a table and I smile when the waiter comes and hands me my Diet coke; diet because we were told we have to stay in our weight class so I can't gain weight.

"So Matt tell us more about tryouts?" Mom asks me as we wait for our food.

"They were okay," I tell them.

"So did you make it?" Dad says. "If not you can still join track."

"Cuts are tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure I made it," I say.

"How can you be sure?"

"Well I kind of won the little match today."

"Don't sound so sullen," Mom says smiling at me. "That's great, what's wrong with that?"

Damn her for knowing me so well, "Nothing. I just didn't expect to be any good at it."

Dad laughs, "Hey son, you're an athlete; no a great athlete with natural talent don't let that stop you from being proud."

"I guess, but Dylan's going to be pissed that I'll beat him in something else."

"Well screw him," he scoffs. "Don't let him get in your way of making it to the top. Dylan's a nice boy and a great friend of yours but he shouldn't be jealous."

"I guess," I say not sure. He seemed fine today about it but that was because he was caught up in the Bill fiasco. I decide to get the attention off of me and turn to my sister, "So did you get the part of Ms. Hannigan in your school play like you wanted?"

"No," she pouts. "But it's okay because I got Annie!"

"That's great," Mom says. "You're the star of the show."

"Yep, guess they wanted to pick the only red head," Dad teases her.

"Dad," she whines. "I'm talented too. Plus even if I had brown hair like Matt they could have given me a wig!"

"Hey I'm not the only brunette! Dad's hair was brown before it turned grey!"

"Funny, but I'm not completely grey."

"Keep thinking that Dad," I tell him only to receive a glare in response from him and laughs from Mom and Sarah.'

After a few more minutes of small talk our food comes and my mouth waters when I see my burger. I didn't realize I was so hungry. Taking a bite, I grimace; my burger doesn't taste right. Actually it tastes really burnt

Sarah sees my face and leers at me, "What's wrong with your burger? Last time I checked it was your favorite burger in the world."

"It is. They just overcooked it."

Dad reaches over and takes a bite, "Um, Matt this is medium like always."

I frown and shrug it off as if it was nothing. "Guess the diet coke is messing with my taste buds."

Dinner ends a little while later after Sarah and me split a sundae and a piece of cake. Once the check is paid Mom goes to grab the pictures and dad takes Sarah and me to the car where we wait for her.

Mom gets into the car and hands Sarah and me the pictures. "They turned out wonderful," she gushes. "I even got frames to hang them up in!"

I look at the pictures and frown at the one of me; it did look as if I had contacts in. Mom must have seen my face in the mirror because she turns back.

"I hope the picture of you was the best one Matt. Most of yours were a little blurry and they couldn't edit them to fix it.

I glance at the pictures again. Maybe the second camera didn't have a smudge on it and was broken. Or the smudge wasn't cleaned properly.

"Weird," I whisper as we pull into the driveway.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4. Strength, some have it and some don't**

The next day arrives all too soon and as I get on the bus I cannot help but feel a little weird at the prospect of having to deal with an actual fight today.

Thankfully I am the only one awake and get dressed without anyone noticing I'm awake. If any of my family saw me right now they'd know something was off. For breakfast I quickly grab a few pickled onions and eat as I pack my lunch in a daze. Once all that is finished Sarah and my Mom finally come downstairs and are surprised when I put pancakes on the table for them.

"Did you poison these," Sarah giggles.

"No why?"

"You just aren't a morning person," Mom says.

"Times change," I tell her cryptically. She gives me a stern look and I sigh, "And maybe I'm nervous to see if I made the team."

"Honey you'll be fine. Hurry up and get dressed so you don't miss the bus."

"Yes Mom," I yell at her from the top of the steps. I don't even pay attention to what is going on as I grab a random pair of jeans and a random tee-shirt. I don't really care about anything at the moment.

Dressed I go downstairs and ruffle Sarah's hair before I walk outside and wait for the bus. It pulls up and I walk up the stairs and sit in my usual sit with Sam, only today Lindsay is there too.

"What are you doing Linds?" I ask.

"Nice way to greet your best friend," she jokes and punches my arm. "Plus Brian's sick so I had no ride.

"Not funny," I mumble and sink into my seat.

I see Sam staring at me strangely and I shrug at him. Of course he's Sam so he doesn't listen to me, "Dude if this is about the fight just chill. You could have said no when Dylan got you into this mess."

"And what look like a fucking pansy, I don't think so."

"Wait what fight?"

"Nothing," Sam and I say at the same time.

"Seriously tell me," she pleads.

"Dylan got Matt into a fight with Bill since Matt crushed him during wrestling yesterday."

Her face lights up, "You mean you beat Bill! That's fantastic!" She reaches over to my seat and gives me an awkward hug before her smile turns into a glare. "And I'm going to cut that jerk's balls off for getting you into a fight."

"Lindsay you would really do that to your boyfriend?"

"Yeah, his idiocy could get Matt killed. And Matt you aren't off the hook either. You should have said no."

"I couldn't, I just have this strange feeling that I'd rather get hurt than go down without a fight," I explain.

"Idiot, and Sam you could have stopped this!"

"But what would have been the fun in that," he complains and we all laugh at him.

The three of us walk into school and Dylan comes up and brings Lindsay in for a kiss as Anna rolls her eyes as she trails right behind Dylan.

"Do you two ever do anything besides make-out," she jokes.

"Yes we have intellectual conversations," Dylan supplies.

"About what?" I question.

"Um how we are so hot that we resemble Aphrodite and Ares."

"Wow you pay attention in class," Sam laughs.

Before anyone can reply Bill and his gang, and I mean the word gang literally as in tattoos and street fights, walk up to us and Bill punches his hand. "Meet me in the cafeteria so we don't cause a scene," he says before walking away.

"So the rumors are true?" Anna asks.

"What rumors?"

"That you are fighting Bill," she says simply.

"Well then yes."

"Damn it Matt are you suicidal?"

Before I can answer Dylan steps in, "Usually I'd agree with you, but I swear Matt can beat him without a problem."

"Can we change the subject off of me?"

"In a second," Sam says. "Here I figured since you were going to need some strength health food is a good idea so take this." He throws me an ice cold thermos. "Eat it now."

"Um Sam I'm not fighting until lunch and I have a whole thing of pickled onions for right before."

"So you can kill him with bad breath," Lindsay groans and Anna laughs.

"Bitch eat it now or else."

Rolling my eyes I open it and laugh as I see the mostly melted pistachio ice cream. "Man you know I hate this stuff. And I take back what I said about it looking like puke, melted it looks like puke."

We all laugh and head our separate ways to our classes. I walk towards biology and am ecstatic when I see a woman standing at the front of the class. Something about her strikes me as comforting and strange at the same time.

She is relatively short and is wearing a dress with a design that resembles ropes. I see some girls snickering at her instead of flirting with me like usual. The dress wasn't the weirdest part about her though. I swear her eyes were the same weird color as mine.

People always tell me my emerald eyes were astonishing and girls gush over them, something I use to my advantage. Neither Mom nor Dad have emerald eyes. Mom's eyes are blue and Dad's eyes are brown so I've never known where I got my strange coloring from.

Besides her eyes her hair is a mess and I hear people whispering about that too as the bell rings.

"Hello class," she says.

"Good morning," we all say. Well the majority of the class and it isn't said with respect.

"My name is Ms. Tall and I will be your teacher for a substantial period of time."

"What happened to Mr. Smith," my friend Madison calls from the back.

"From what I heard he had an accident," the teacher says. "Now I know you were learning about the digestive system, but we are starting something a little different today. Can anyone guess what it is?"

People guess and none of the guesses are right, including mine. Suddenly my head starts to hurt and random pictures of this woman flash through my brain. Without thinking I raise my hand, "Mutations. And to start with we will look at frogs."

Ms. Tall smiles at me as if I just handed her the winning lottery ticket. "Correct, Mr.…."

"Matt Nash," I tell her.

"Well Mr. Nash here is right. Frogs are a great example of how mutations work in almost every organism you will meet. The major exception is wolves," she continues and I swear she is staring at me.

Class ends and I walk to English class with Madison. We used to be friends in Elementary school, but drifted apart over the years until this year when we reconnected a little bit.

"Wasn't that teacher strange," she says in her gossip voice.

"I guess. Something about her was kind of cool though. I don't know she seemed nice."

"You're getting soft Matt, she was a major freak," she laughs as we go into English.

As always I tune out my teachers in both math and English. Instead all I can think about is how nervous I am feeling right now. Not so much about the fight, but I really don't want to get in trouble.

Thankfully as I walk into the locker room I notice that Sam isn't messing with my stuff. We change in a comfortable silence and grabbing one of my water bottles I head to the field and we meet up with Anna.

"Today we are running two miles," Coach Pearson tells us and I hear most people groan in aggravation. Sam and I look at each other and laugh. For us this is nothing. Coach Pearson used to make us do three miles and suicides during football season.

"So not fair," Anna whines and I elbow her as she scowls at me.

"It's nothing Anna; I can carry you if you want."

"Bastard," she laughs.

"Love you too!"

"How about a bet then," she says.

"I'm listening. But I'm not hitting a girl so no fights."

"Sexist much, but okay I wouldn't want to fight you anyway. If you can run two miles in 8 minutes you get to pick the rest."

"Really? Why?"

"Cause I suck at that stuff and you're the one running."

"Okay so if I run it in 8 minutes or less you are going on a date with me this weekend."

She blushes and nods before joining her other friends in stretching.

"Dude you totally just asked Anna out!" Sam says.

"I guess I did."

"Wait until Dylan hears about this. I didn't know you liked her."

"To be honest I didn't either," I blush as we finish stretching and with one last gulp of my Gatorade I run when coach blows his whistle.

My mind isn't focused on the running. Instead I'm wondering why I asked Anna out. Yeah she's cute and all and I love her, but our relationship is that of a brother and sister. I have no idea why I asked her out at all.

This is going to drive me crazy. Coach blows his whistle as I pass him, but I ignore him and keep on running to clear my head.

After my second time around, the course is a mile, I stop at Coach and notice that the only other person here is some Sophomore I didn't know very well from football. Guess I didn't get my time after all.

Sam finishes a minute later and sits down next to me. "Damn I didn't know you could run that fast!"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you have your date."

"No I don't I heard Jim's time was 9:00 so I came in after him."

"Oh, but you were running as if you were in the Olympics."

I roll my eyes, "Stop exaggerating."

He gives me an exasperated sigh and suddenly Coach is calling us over to him. We walk up to him and he gives me an odd look.

"Yes Coach," Sam says.

"Sam have you noticed anything unusual about Nash?"

It annoys me that he calls me by my last name, I prefer Matt.

"No sir, he's just Matt."

"Hello I am right here! And no I am not doing steroids."

"Are you sure?" Coach asks. "Matt you finished at a record time."

"Jim finished running first so why isn't he here?"

He shakes his head, "Matt you ran three miles. When you passed me the second time my watch told me 6:13. That's amazing! And three in 9:15. A mile in three minutes is not normal for a 14 year old. I saw you drinking something before you ran. Is it some new steroid?"

"No sir, it's just my Gatorade I drink all the time."

He gives me a look of authority that says 'I don't believe you' but allows us to leave to change.

"So you have your date," Sam exclaims as we change.

"I guess I do," I frown as I change. I still don't know why I asked her out, but I'll go with the flow.

In History class I tell Dylan about what happened during gym and he smiles, "About time you got a girl dude. I swear half the school throws themselves at you and you act as if it doesn't matter. I thought you were gay for a moment there. Not that that's a problem or anything."

"Bastard," I tell him. "I just didn't want a girl to go out with me because of a stupid chick bet. But can we get back to work now?"

"Nerd," he scoffs but starts to flip through his text book. "How about we research the feminist movement so we can talk about women and bras?"

"Pervert," I laugh.

"And that matters why?"

I ignore that comment and think for a minute, "Come on you know me I want to research a war."

"That could be easy. How about the Civil War or WWI or WWII?"

"Everybody's going to pick those," I protest and suddenly my head hurts just like it did in biology and strange words float through my mind. "How about the War of Scars?"

"What the hell is that?"

"I don't know," I admit. "I must have read about it somewhere." A total lie I have no idea what it is or why I blurted it out.

"Well if you do the research then I'm game."

"Never mind any other ideas?"

"Nada, you're the nerd not me."

I think for a moment, "Battle strategies."

"That could work," he says through pursed lips and we start to work on out project until the end of class.

By the time we get to the cafeteria Dylan, Sam, Lindsay, Anna, and some other friends of mine are flanking me and I want to scream. This is becoming ridiculous. I see Bill walking up to us and I close the distance between us.

"Here's the deal we are going to the back where no teachers ever go and there aren't any cameras."

"Understood."

Our two groups walk outside and eventually everyone splits apart leaving me and Bill in the middle of everyone. I gulp in anticipation and suddenly am only partially listening as we go over the conditions we made yesterday.

Once I nod in agreement we shake hands and he suddenly punches me hard enough to leave a bruise. He tries to kick me and I dodge it and use his size to my advantage and when he strikes me I quickly move out of his way so that his momentum sends him flying.

Thank god I took physics last year!

Without warning he lands a blow to my head and I fall down onto the hard concrete bleeding. I wipe the blood off of my hand and lick it off of my lips so that I look better and am suddenly parched.

I don't know how to explain it, but I was thirstier and hungrier than I had ever been in my life. Thankfully Bill decides his shoulder needs to be reset, I must have dislocated it but I don't remember doing that.

During our short break my friends surround me, but I ignore them and eat a pickles onion and chug the rest of my water to satisfy me.

We get in positions again and this time I feel a lot stronger. Without warning I attack him and he's lying on the ground with a bloody nose and a concussion. I lean over his head, blocking everybody from our view and without understanding what I was doing I close in as if I was whispering in his ear.

However it was as if I was in an out of body experience and suddenly my finger wipes the blood off of his face and I stick my finger in my mouth before helping him up.

He glares at me, 'Everybody leave now," he commands and everyone leaves only I know they are only behind the dumpster. "Why'd you help me up?"

"I won fair and square. I wasn't going to let a petty argument stand in the way of being the better person. And by the way the terms we made are off. Wrestle or don't; I couldn't care less. But what I do know is that you are good at it and I shouldn't take that away from you because of my stupid friend."

I stick my hand out and for a moment I swear he's going to be the better person and shake my hand, only instead he punches me in the jaw and takes another swing at my temple and all I see is black.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5. Strange Delusions**

I groan in pain as I sit up. Part of my mind registers voices all around me, but I barely notice them. I lift my hand up and notice some dried blood on the back of my hand. What the hell happened?

"He's awake," a soft and concerned female voice says.

"Thank god," a male voice replies.

Slowly opening my eyes I take in my surroundings. Everything is ridiculously bright and loud as if I had a migraine. Most everything is white or a pale blue. Sitting up I notice that I'm in an enclosed room.

A smell similar to antiseptic reaches my nose and overwhelms me. I start to sneeze and cough to get the smell to go away, but it doesn't. I find this a little strange since every other time I've been in a hospital, which I'm guessing is where I am, the metallic scent was never that repulsive.

"What happened," I mumble.

"Oh honey," Mom squeals and hugs me. "We were so scared that you were going to be stuck in a coma for a long time."

"What happened," I repeat.

"We got a call from the nurse saying you were found passed out in the back of the school. None of your friends knew what happened," Dad answers.

"How long have I been out?" I ask remembering Mom said she was afraid I wasn't going to wake up.

"Two days."

Two days! What the hell! Did I get hit that hard? I thought that I won. Before I can think about what happened any longer another voice starts calling my name and suddenly a little body jumps on me.

"Sarah be careful, your brother is injured!"

"Matt are you okay, I thought you had died," she cries.

"I'm okay Sarah I," I assure her.

Mom and Dad start talking to the doctor who just walked in and I let them be as they talk about getting me out of here. I think I love my doctor who says I can leave later today. As they talk my head starts to pound and my vision gets blurry.

I am no longer in the hospital bed, but staring down onto it glancing down at a boy a little younger than me who looks familiar. A feeling of sadness and guilt hit me as I stare down at him. The figure next to me, who is giving me the creeps, takes out a small vile and drinks it before biting the boy on the bed.

A colorful and gigantic spider is sitting on the boy's head and with a blink of an eye I'm back in bed. Mom looks down at me and smiles as the nurse takes my blood pressure.

What just happened? I decide it was probably a good idea not to mention it since more than anything I did want to go home and get back to school before this entire event becomes even more embarrassing. But it was still incredibly weird. Why the hell was I randomly having visions of people I have never met? And why did it seem so fucking real?

Overall I felt incredibly confused. It must have been the medicine, I repeat over and over again. Yeah that would make sense. At least I think it made sense. I didn't even know if I was on any meds. But I'm guessing I would be.

I wake up early the next morning and spend a lot more time than I ever had on getting ready in the morning. There was no way I was going to go to school and seem like a wimp in front of everyone. My bruised face would do that well enough by itself.

My parents had profusely tried to convince me to stay home and take it easy for a day or two, but I refused. As strange as it sounds I just wanted to get back to school and make this strange nightmare end. It would help ease the weird vibes I kept getting.

I walk downstairs and Mom is waiting for me with breakfast. She puts waffles and bacon on my plate and pours me some OJ. Dad comes over and hands me my medicine. A bunch of pain killers, headache pills, and antibiotics. It makes me feel like an old man, but at least I didn't feel anything.

Since I was injured and all, Mom drove me to school so I didn't have to ride the bus. She dropped me off and handed me a doctor's note to get out of gym. She didn't need to know that I had no intentions on giving the note to Coach; I wasn't going to pretend I couldn't do anything when I was fine.

Walking into bio felt kind of weird since people were looking at me strangely. Ignoring them I sit next to Madison. She looks at my face and shoots me a sympathetic look. I shrug at her and turn my attention to the front of the room.

"So Mr. Nash is back?" Ms. Tall laughs. "Glad you could join us. Today we are doing a frog dissection. Split up into groups of two and follow the directions on the sheets provided. Madison grabs me and takes me over to a lab station.

We start the dissection and my head throbs. Damn I thought the meds were supposed to work. Following the directions we flip the frog onto its back and I look down at it in confusion.

"Madison why the hell are there stars all over the frog?"

"What do you mean?"

"The weird birthmarks that resemble stars," I tell her.

She looks at me strangely, "Whatever," she tells me and turns back to the assignment. Out of the corner of my eye I swear I see Ms. Tall smile at me mysteriously with a proud look in her eye.

Per usual Sam is messing in my locker. I glance in it and see a small banner that says Welcome Back. I give him a strange look, there has to be a trick somewhere up his sleeve. In response he just shrugs. I better watch my back before I actually get tricked by him.

"So who you feeling bro?"

"Fine," I sigh in aggravation. "I am so sick of everyone asking that. I am fine."

"Dude you were punched in the jaw and in a coma for two days."

"So, I've had worse."

"When?"

"That…" I pause. I don't know, but I know I have. "That time when I was burnt?"

"Funny Matt. So where are you taking Anna tonight?"  
I don't pay any attention to what he just said as I think about why I blurted out that I was burnt. We walk onto the field and Anna comes running towards me. She squeezes me and I laugh as I return the hug.

"Nice to see you too," I chuckle.

"You had us scared Matt," she admits.

"Don't worry I'm fine."

Coach has us playing soccer today. Usually I hate soccer, it was incredibly boring. For some reason though I was really excited to play and had a feeling I'd be showing off. We get split into teams and start playing.

Something possesses me as I get into the game and I end up scoring 10 goals in the first half of class. As I get into the rhythm of the game and ignore the oddness of the situation I start actually enjoying myself. Of course that was when it started to get weird.

My vision becomes blurry again and instead of Anna's friend Emily being in goal it is some guy big enough to be a professional goalie. He smiles at me before looking at me oddly as if he recognizes me. Strange because I recognize him too even though that's impossible. It was just like that vision in the hospital.

A figure comes running on the field and takes out a gun. The shot rings out and the guy is on the ground.

Another blur and I kick the ball into the goal and see Emily miss the impossible stop.

History passes quickly as Dylan just bugs me about having to do so much work by his self and we walk to lunch and sit at our usual spot. Everyone joins us and I take out my pills.

"Damn that's a lot of meds," Sam laughs.

"Not really."

"Are you sure you're still up to going out tonight?" Anna asks with concern and all the girls giggle.

Right Anna and I have that strange date tonight. "Of course, I feel fine. Just a little bruised."

She blushes and Dylan pats me on the back, "Matt, Sam and I got you a get well soon present." He hands me a card and a box.

I give him a look of disbelief and open the box first. I gasp as I see a dildo with a note attached to it telling me to use it now that I feel better. The card says Get Well Soon Dick Face. I throw it at them and everyone laughs.

Well everyone but me. I shoot my two friends a dirty look as I hear my name over the loud speaker. Everyone gasps and tells me I am in trouble.

Upon reaching the office I see the bio sub waiting for me. "Hello Matt, may I call you Matt?"

"Um yeah," I answer awkwardly.

"It's great to see that you're doing better."

"Thanks, but I don't really know you."

She smirks, "I know but I plan on being here for a while and would like to get to know my students."  
That's weird, why single me out. "Okay Ms. Tall."

"Follow me," she commands and I follow her to the biology room. She sits down and gestures for me to sit across from her. "Would you like a drink?"

"Sure, "I smile. She is a teacher and for some reason I trust her so I accept.

She reaches under the desk and hands me a tinted bottle of what I'm guessing is root beer and grabs herself a bottle of water. A frog leaps over to her and another onto her shoulder. These two have even more designs than the one in class. I swear one of them has a face on it, "Interesting birthmark," I remark.

"Isn't it?" she smiles. "Most people don't notice them or care. What does it look like to you?"

I look at it for a moment, "Shancus." Wait who?  
"I think so too," she says with a frown. "Poor kid."

"Um this is going to sound weird but who is he?" I ask as I take a sip of my soda. It's flat, but really good.

"You don't know him," she asks confused.

I shake my head as the bell rings, "Sorry I have to go. Thank you for the soda."

"It's not a soda dear child," she laughs. "Take it I have no need for it.

I give her a funny look and head to my next class with an even bigger headache.

Trying to make it to Spanish I run into someone and my face hurts as I do. Glancing up I groan as I see Bill, "Loser," he coughs.

"Seriously Bill, can we just pretend nothing happened?"

"You just don't want to look like a chicken I did put you in the hospital for two days."

"As I recall he beat the shit out of you first," Lindsay calls as she walks towards us with her hand in Dylan's.

"Yet he didn't put me in a coma."

"He helped you up Bill. So stop being a douche and let him do," Dylan growls. "Or he'll do it again."

"Stop fighting guys, this is my fight. Just leave Bill."

"No," he says and pushes me.

I turn around and chug the rest of my soda. Bill pushes me again and this time I respond. The world blurs again and suddenly I am standing in what looks like a gym with an older guy who is much bigger than me. He looks at me and I stare at his one eye as he pushes me down. I jump back up and eventually land a solid punch.

Everything blurs again and Bill is on the floor in pain. I help him up and get a sudden sense of déjà vu. This time I don't let him get to me and as he tries to punch me I duck and run towards class.

Something weird is going on, I feel amazing. Maybe coach was right and somehow I'm on steroids. Can someone drug me with steroids? They must because even though I was in a coma for two days I suddenly feel stronger than ever.

As I walk to class I see a spider out of the corner of my eye.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 The Date**

Later that night I am sitting with Dylan in my room trying to find something to wear for my date tonight. We decided to double so Dylan and Lindsay would be joining Anna and me. Poor Sam would be the third wheel now if things between Anna and me went well.

"How about this?" Dylan asks as he pulls a blazer out of my closet.

I roll my eyes, "Dude just let me get dressed myself. I feel like a fucking chick when you give me advice on what to wear on a first date."

"So what Matt, you need to look good. But fine just throw something on."

Throwing a football at him I go to my closet. He cringes in pain and I laugh. Instead of spending hours finding something I just grab a shirt and a clean pair of jeans and throw it on. I brush my hair quickly and stand in front of Dyl five minutes later.

"See quick and easy."

"I have to admit you aren't too bad rookie."

"Rookie?"  
"You've never been on a real date."

I don't even respond to his comment and glancing down at my bed I squint my eyes, I must be dreaming or high from my meds. Quickly shaking my head and closing my eyes I look down on my pillow again. Nope not dreaming, again I must be high from my meds.

"Dude what is your problem?" Dylan laughs at me.

Taking a deep breath a respond, "Don't freak but I think there's a spider on your head."

Of course he didn't believe me, "Stop messing with me Matt. That dildo at lunch was funny. This is just mean. I hate spiders."

"I'm not joking!" I yell at him. Bad idea on my part for the spider gets agitated and jumps off of his head and crawls down his neck. Dylan begins to hyperventilate and cusses up a storm. Without thinking I rush to Sarah's room and grab her flute.

Rushing back to my room I start to play a tune I'd never heard of before and the spider begins to crawl up to his neck and makes a web over his mouth. Dylan gives me a stern look and I continue to play.

Panicking I pray for the spider to stop it. To my astonishment it jumps off of Dylan and crawls over to me, crawling up my leg and onto my arm. I stop playing the flute and it stays in my hand, only now it looks angry. I put it on the floor and start to play again. Willing the spider to continue to listen to me, I stop and it crawls back into my hand.

"What the hell was that?" Dylan manages to say as he spits remnants of the web out of his mouth.

"I have no clue," I admit.

"And since when have you played flute?" he raises his eyebrow.

I just shrug and grab my jacket as a way to signal the end of the conversation. The spider jumps into my pocket. For some reason I'm torn between killing the damn thing and keeping it. Why the hell would I want either of those? Is it normal to feel a burning passion for a spider. Luckily it crawls off of me and ends up under my bed.

Good I'll deal with that mess later. Just another problem to add to the long list of strangeness that has taken over my life recently.

After receiving a long and tedious lecture from my parents about a curfew and dating and whatnot, which Dylan laughs at me for getting; the two of us grab our skateboards from the garage. We skate to the shopping center kind of place in town.

It's more of a mini city than a shopping center with everything in it. There is a cinema, a park, a middle town square place, stores, restaurants, office buildings, and even apartments and houses around it. Basically it was the place to be besides the mall.

Locking our boards up we walk over to this little Italian restaurant to meet the girls. Honestly, I was actually incredibly stresses out about it. I've never been on a real date before and Anna is hot.

"Hey Matt," she giggles from behind me. Speak of Mr. Tiny. Wait devil, speak of the devil. Man I've been thinking some strange things lately.

"Earth to asshole," I hear Dylan yell at me.

I shake my head, "Sorry I've still been a little out of it since the hospital. I'm on so many meds it's almost as if I'm on a constant high."

"Then let me get beat up and in a coma," Lindsay laughs.

We walk into a restaurant and being the gentleman my Mom has trained me to be I scoot Anna's chair out. She shakes her head at the gesture and I flip her off. Much better same old Anna and not some cheesy version of her.

I end up sitting next to Dylan so that we can sit across from our dates. That was fine by me, less awkward with holding hands and such. We order our drinks and start to talk about nothing in particular. My palms sweat a lot though. Guess first date jitters can do that to you.

"So Matt you never did say why you got called down to the office today," Anna says as she takes a sip of lemonade.

"Oh it was nothing. The bio sub wanted to talk to me."

"Actually Anna," Dylan interjects. "Matt and the sub are secretly banging each other."

Lindsay hits his arm, "Why do I date such a loser?"

We laugh at the familiar bickering between the two. After this entire tome I still had no idea why the hell they were going out. All they ever did was fight; even if it was playful it really wasn't a basis for a relationship. Again neither was dating your teacher who wasn't even the same species as you.

Not knowing where that came from, one of many thoughts that didn't seem to be mine I speak up, "I really was dick. Apparently she wanted to get to know me since I missed a few days."

"That's weird," Anna muses. "She didn't seem like that towards anyone else."

I shrug it off, "I really don't know. She did show me a few of her own frogs though. I swear they had the coolest patterns on them."

"So you're saying you're a whack job too," Dylan states.

I raise my eyebrows, "What do you mean? Madison was saying she was weird too."

"You do have to admit she is a little freaky," Anna says.

"Understatement much," Lindsay scoffs.

I really don't know why people keep saying that. Sure she seems off, but something about her is calming and familiar. Let alone she is incredibly funny. Not wanting to seem like a loser I just sigh, "True again I'm just on a shitload of meds which is ruining my perception."

They buy my excuse and part of me believes it too. I mean it wasn't as if I somehow knew her or anything, because that would be ridiculous. I quickly change the subject back to something normal like wrestling and ask Lindsay and Anna how their cheer competition was going.

Neither of them cheered for school. Instead they cheered for a competitive travel team. I went to a competition once and they were both actually really good. Not to mention all of the girls looked incredibly sexy in their short skirts.

The waiter came back and asked us what we wanted to order. When he came to me I didn't even hesitate, "Steak tar tat please."

Everyone just stares at me for a moment and we return to our conversation.

Our food comes out and as I take a bite they stare at me as if I had groan a third head. Looking down in embarrassment I ask them why.  
Lindsay is the first to answer, "I didn't know you liked raw steak."

"I've never had it," I admit

"Dude you are freaking me out. What are you a zombie who eats dead flesh because that is actually quite sick?"

"I've never had it; I saw a show about it on the Food Network and thought I might as well try it." The second part was a lie. I have no idea why I ordered it. My best guess was that it was the same part of my brain that was remembering strange things lately. Or it was my meds.

"Leave him alone," Anna sighs. "Why does it matter what he eats? Personally I like it when people try new and sometimes different foods."

I smile at her; I knew there was a good reason why I asked her out. Once our food comes everyone stares at me as I cut a piece. Looking down, I attempt to cover my blush. Why is it such a big deal that I'm eating a steak? Okay so it's raw, but big whoop.

As I take a bite I stifle a moan. They stare at me expectantly, "It's good."

"Eew," the girls squeal as I take another bite. Dylan just laughs at me. Seriously they need to shut up; its cow it isn't like I'm eating raw human flesh or anything.

A picture of a man with a fishing net flashes in my head and I shake it away and rejoin the conversation. We pay the bill and head over to the movies.

Neither Anna nor Lindsay was really into the action movie thing and Dylan suggested seeing a Twilight movie, much to my chagrin. So instead of seeing a cool movie we went and saw some lame ass Twilight movie. I buy our tickets and Anna smiles at me as she thanks me. Before tonight I never noticed, but she has a really pretty smile. Nothing at all like a poisonous plant; which is probably the strangest analogy I have ever made.

We sit down with the girls in the middle. The lights dim after a moment and I lean over to Anna, "Is something wrong with the lighting?"

She giggles, "No dummy the lights are going out cause the movies starting? What are you from a third world country without movie theaters or something?"

I fake a laugh, "Never mind I thought I saw something but it was the exit sign."

She nods and relaxes into her chair. My stomach wrenches, I hate lying. And the theater is killing me. For some reason it seems unusually light in here. However I get used to the strange lighting and as soon as there is a god awful I do scene I make _the move_.

At first I was a little worried that it would seem incredibly awkward, but she moves into my arm. I smile into her hair and cannot concentrate on the rest of the movie. Fine with me, for some reason the movie is bugging me, and not just because it sucks. Something else about it gives me the chills and makes me want to crack out laughing instead of the awes all the girls are saying.

After the movie we walk down the street to go get some ice cream. Anna's hand is in mine and she looks over at me and frowns.

"What?" I ask.

"Nothing, you just seem different is all."

"Anna just because we're holding hands doesn't make me different," I laugh.

"Not that, something about you in the dark is chilling. As if you're a completely different person than you were this morning."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean it's kind of like your eyes glow and you seem all predator like. Kind of like Edward."

I scoff when she relates me to the dumb movie, from behind me I hear Dylan cackle. "I think the movie got to you Anna. I've known you for years, we used to go camping together and you never thought that."

She blushes, "You're right sorry about that."

I frown; I didn't mean to make her feel bad. It was just that I had a feeling I should say something like that. Hell maybe I am still messed up from being in a coma for a few days. Not wanting her to get mad at me I lean down at kiss her on the lips, nothing majorly passionate, but a quick peck. It works and she smiles at me before blushing again.

Dylan starts clapping from behind us, "Wait to go Matt, finally losing your lip virginity."

"Fuck you Dylan."

"I don't swing that way Matt, and I didn't know you did either. Apparently Anna turned you away from girls."

We all laugh despite the fact that he was being a jerk. Gathering in the ice cream parlor we all order our dessert and sit at a table. Licking my cookie dough fudge mint chip I lean over and kiss Anna again just to screw with Dyl. Okay so maybe because I liked it too.

She responds and this time it was more of a real kiss with tongue and all. We pull away and she stares at me, "Damn Matt your teeth are majorly sharp."

"So I wasn't any good."

"Nope," Lindsay and Dylan say together and suddenly I remember why they are dating.

"It was perfect," Anna says and leans in for another kiss.

As I kiss her I peek over her shoulder and see the spider on the next table. Even stranger I could have sworn it winked at me.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7 Broken**

Thankfully the remainder of the weekend seemed to pass without any troubles. Walking into school on Monday turned out more awkward than I could have ever imagined though. Anna and I were walking to class hand in hand and we were receiving a lot of stares and murmurs. It made me blush, which caused embarrassment and more blushing on my part.

Deciding against letting the awkwardness take over I leaned down and kissed her on the lips. She giggled and kissed me back before pulling away. We parted ways as I made my way down to Biology class. Dylan and Sam meet me halfway to class. They run up to me with angry looks in their eyes.

"What," I ask hesitantly.

"Why'd you do it?" they scream at the same time.

I groan, "I cannot talk about this right now, I have class." Before they can catch up to me I run away towards the Bio room and weirdly enough I could have sworn I just appeared their like five seconds after I began to run. Glancing at my watch confirms my suspicions.

Out of the corner of my eyes I see the spider again, crawling into the classroom. I stand my ground and start to listen, Ms. Tall is in there talking. Her words are muffled, as if she knows I am here. The only words I can make out are Darren, soon, Octa, Larten and Father. Each word strikes something in me and stirs up memories and emotions I cannot place.

It drives me crazy. For the past week or week and a half I swear there's a part of me inside that I don't know. And I don't even know how to react to it anymore.

As the first bell rings I walk into class. Thankfully all we are doing is taking a test, and since it seems relatively easy I just let the answers flow and keep my mind blank.

However it doesn't do the trick very well. Once at gym I pray that playing a sport will help me somewhat. Of course I forgot one tiny thing. Groaning at seeing Sam at the lockers, I take my time walking to get changed. He gives me an odd look as I change, but thankfully keeps quiet.

Anna walks over to me and gives me a hug once we meet on the courts. Sam fakes a gag and I flip him off, causing him to laugh. We break into teams to play hockey and suddenly I'm not so excited. Football was my sport, and soccer was okay, hockey just annoyed me. There was some part of me that feared the sport, although I've never known why.

We start the game and as the half comes and goes my team is losing, by a lot. For the first time since Friday I get a sense of déjà vu. As we start the next half my head feels as if it's on fire. Wanting it to stop I gain possession of the ball and score.

Suddenly the pain intensifies and the scenery around me shifts. Only unlike the other times this has happened I am still here. I rush to score over and over again, although I don't recognize the other people. A large bulky guy comes up to me and hit the ball at my dick. Holding in a scream if pain I attack him.

The headache disappears and as I come back to reality I notice a senior on the ground with a compound fracture. His blood begins to soak the ground and the white of his bone is visible. We are all rushed away to the field for the remainder of class. Only it doesn't help. Everyone is on edge, me more so than others. I can still smell the blood and my stomach churns. However it isn't the churning of nausea, it's the churning of something I couldn't describe that pained me and made me want to go back.

Feigning sickness I run as fast as I can to the locker room to avoid the almost instinctual feelings my body is putting off. I feel guilty too; I'm the one who caused this. Sam said I wasn't in fault. I was simply on fire with my game when the guy came up and tripped over my stick, flying through the air and landing feet away from me. I didn't know what to say, I know I attacked him, the residual pain still coursing through me is enough to attest that it happened.

Once getting to history Dylan and I stand in front of the class and present our presentation on battle strategies. We finish and the entire class claps. "Matt have you ever thought of going into the military? You're strategies are unusual yet as you proved could be effective."

I shrug, "No, I've been a general and a strategist for years, I couldn't deal with it again." Everyone cracks up and I blush, I was serious so why are they laughing. Wait serious? I've never done anything like that.

Dread flows through my body as I enter the lunch room. My arm is draped around Anna and everyone is smiling at us. Of course the inevitable comes and Sam and Dylan begin to yell at me again.

"Ugh stop it; you guys are making my head hurt more than it already does."

"Then explain," Dylan pleads. "Was it because of Bill?"

"No, he had nothing to do with it."

"Then what the hell Matt, you were great at wrestling. Why did you quit," Sam asks.

"It was unfair," I explain. "I had an unfair advantage."

"What advantage, talent?" Lindsay adds.

"Just leave him alone guys," Anna pleads.

"No way, you're just biased," Dylan whines.

"Just stop," I yell with authority I never knew existed. "I don't have any reason to explain my action to you. I had an advantage that was going to get people hurt. That's it, end of story and you better not mention it again."

My friends sit there dumbfounded while the spider on my shoulder, which had been following me all day, started to clap. Damn it, I need to get off these meds. Oh wait I already was off of them.

"Sorry," the all mumble and I start to feel horrible. They're my friends and I have no idea why the hell I want them to feel submissive. Well submissive is the wrong word. But I feel power coursing through my veins and it somehow made things feel better, yet not at the same time.

All of them stare at me and I look down in shame. Anna turns towards me and pouts. I attempt to give her a kiss and she turns so it's only her cheek.

Aggravated by both their behavior and abashed at mine, I leave the table and walk away without looking back. Not knowing where to go I gravitate towards the bio room. Upon entering I am baffled at how I ended up there.

"I see you Matt," Ms. Tall laughs.

I walk up to her desk, "Sorry."

"Don't apologize, you do it too much."

"Ms. Tall I didn't know you until a few days ago, how would you know from observing me in class?"

"You'll know when the time is right?"

"Let me guess I'll understand what the hell you were talking about this morning to the spider when the time comes?"

"You heard that?"

My heart stops, "I thought you were going to tell me it didn't happen and my meds were messing with me."

"Do you believe that Matt? Now if you're here sit down, have a drink and tell me what's bothering you."

Sighing, I oblige and she hands me a bottle of the soda she gave me last week. "My friends hate me."

"I don't see why. From what I can tell you seem quite popular and likeable."

"Well they were yelling at me because I quit wrestling even though I'm good at it. They didn't understand my decision and thought I was scared of this senior I pissed off."

"But you're scared of yourself," she finishes.

"Exactly, I just have a foreboding of sorts that people would get hurt. Hell I broke a guy's leg today in gym. Well I thought I did, apparently I didn't though."

"Madame Octa saw it, she agrees with both you and your friends."

I have no idea what that's supposed to mean or who the hell Madame Octa is either. All I know is that I'm sick of this. The headache starts back up and as I take another sip I am transported to a morgue. Only this time I return to the classroom before anything can happen.

"Now this is exciting," the teacher muses.

Freaked out that she somehow must have seen what was going on in my head I leave the classroom and roam the halls for the remainder of lunch, this time carrying the bottle of soda with me. For some reason I'd been extremely thirsty and hungry lately.

I walk into Anna in the halls and she hugs me. "I'm so sorry Matt, I didn't mean to hurt you."

"I'm the one who did it Anna, not you. Now everyone's pissed at me and I don't even know what to do."

"Stop whining, it doesn't suit you."

"Thanks," I mumble.

"Seriously Matt, we're your friends and even guys PMS sometimes. But that doesn't stop you from liking me or Lindsay so the guys should just deal with it."

"Thanks Anna," I smile as the bell rings and I head to class.

After school I head straight home for the first time since the beginning of the year. With no sport, my afternoon was basically free. By the time Sarah gets home my homework is finished and I have no idea what to do with myself. Sarah asks me to play with her and with nothing to do I would, but a part of me feels strange playing with my sister. Again the spider, which is now on the window sill, nods at my decision.

Confused and pissed I take out my laptop and start to research anything that can explain what's going on with me. It wasn't a surprise when it came up with schizophrenia, paranoia, and drugs. Not feeling the slightest bit better I decide to go outside and burn some of the adrenaline coursing through my veins.

Once outside I take off as fast as I can. Running down the street until I reach local woods, where I take off my shirt and jump in the cold river. I don't know why I did it, hell it was cold enough to be suicide, but I couldn't feel the temperature. Being in the water used to clear my head, but even though I was only waist high it felt as if I was drowning and being pulled down.

Jumping out of the river I take off again. I don't know how far I ran or how long I'm out for, but when I get home I haven't even broken a sweat. My parents look at me funny all through dinner. I look down at the ground feigning ignorance at the odd looks they give me.

By the end it gets on my nerves and I call them out on it, "It's nothing," Mom says.

"then why won't you stop staring at me?"

"Are you doing drugs," Dad blurts out.

"No, why?"

"You quit wrestling, a sign of erratic behavior and you look extremely pale and clammy."

"I'm tired," I lie. "I think I'm going to go to sleep."

They nod at me and I make my way upstairs quickly. My head blazes with heat once more and this time I stay in my room. However a part of me wants to go back down to dinner. Looking around I notice I'm not in my room. It was just like what happened in gym today.

Suddenly a young boy walks in through the door. "You'll pay," he vows. "I killed you and you should have stayed dead. But no, you've come back twice. Watch your back, Prince because your time is running out."

With a blur of movement I'm in my room again. Rushing to the bathroom I vomit, although afterwards I still feel extremely queasy. Looking in the mirror I notice that I am unreasonably pale and clammy. Though it isn't a look of sickness, and the clamminess isn't exactly clamminess, it's indescribable. All in all I looked horrible.

Feeling uneasy I lay down in bed to go to sleep even though it's still extremely early. This has to end, somewhere along the line it seems as if my life is no longer mine. I'm feeling things I don't understand or control, the strange visions, the spider, everything Ms. Tall has said to me, the memories that aren't mine.

I don't feel like Matt Nash anymore, I don't know who I am. But one thing is for sure, whoever the hell I am, I'm broken.


	8. Chapter 8

**6. Sudden cravings**

I was not a fun person to be around after I came to the realization that I was broken. It took a few days for me to talk to my friends and even more before I would sit down and have a real conversation. My family wasn't fairing any better with my mood swings. Hell saying that I've been home a lot due to my lack of a sport my family was getting the brunt of it.

On top of that I could swear I'm infected with something deadly. Along with the strange visions I've been getting more moody, tired, aggressive, and have almost lost my appetite even though I'm always hungry. My body just feels wrong, yet right at the same time.

Of course as all funks do, this did pass. Sitting on the bus on Thursday my friends it was obvious that they were on edge around me, I didn't blame them though for if roles were reversed I would be apprehensive too. When I greet them nobody can manage to mumble more than a muffled and unenthusiastic hello.

It wasn't until we walked into school that I noticed them starting to come around. Not surprisingly it was Anna who came up to me first and kissed me hello. I kiss her lightly on the cheek and turn towards everyone else.

"Guys I am terribly sorry for the way I've been acting the last few days. Can we just forget about it?"

"Definitely," Anna smiles as Lindsay just nods.

Sam shrugs, "I don't know dude you've been pretty strange for a while and a little moody for my taste."

"Sam's right," Dylan agrees. "This isn't going to become a monthly thing is it?"  
"Your masculinity is in question and I don't think Anna would like it if you start PMSing all the time on her. We hang with two girls, we don't need three."

"Sam," Anna screeches as Dylan gives him a high five and Lindsay hits Dyl in the back of the head."

"Damn Linds, what the hell was that for?"  
"Chauvinistic bastard," she explains only is having trouble containing her laughter.

I just shake my head at my friends and laugh along with them. This is much better than the strange relationships that I've been having with them recently. We start talking about more pressing issues like wrestling and how it's going. Part of me is still pissed that I had to quit, yet it does feel like the right thing to do.

It was in the middle of the conversation about how big a dick Bill was being that I feel myself salivating and feel stomach pangs. The sensation was similar to the one I have when I'm standing in an ice cream parlor or at a BBQ. Looking around I survey the area for breakfast food such as doughnuts, which people sometimes carry before school, however I see none.

Deciding to shrug it off as simple hunger from missing breakfast I hear the bell ring and walk towards biology. I sit down and Ms. Tall smiles at me. I smile back, for some reason the long term sub has grown on me. Madison sits next to me with a little hesitation. As I smile at her she visible seems to feel more at ease.

Today we are looking at blood types. "Can anyone tell me the different types of blood?" Ms. Tall asks.

Without realizing I put my hand up she calls on me, "O, A, B, and AB. Each of these can either be positive or negative meaning that they either have or lack the Rh protein."  
"Very good Matt, now what the different types mean is that,"

She continues her lecture and I start to tune her out. I don't know how the hell I even knew the answer I gave her, but somehow I did. This time I don't worry about it though, this has happened to me so much recently that I don't even fret over it.

"Matt as you seem to know about blood can you tell us the different kinds?"

"Umm, red carries oxygen. White has to do with the immune system, platelets come together to clot wounds and plasma is how they all travel."

She tells me I'm correct and I tune out the rest of the lesson, I know this. I don't know how I know it, but I do. Class passes quickly and I walk to math with Madison chatting about random nothingness. She doesn't ask me how I suddenly seem to know everything and I'm glad for that. Don't get me wrong I'm good at school, but never before a few weeks ago have I know the answers before we learned anything.

Or at least a lot besides math, I still have no idea what I'm doing in math. What I do know is ever since biology my strange hunger has gotten stronger and is getting harder to ignore.

Math ends and I rush to the locker room where Sam is waiting for me. He nods at me and I see the smirk on his face, he has something big planned today. However it doesn't bug me as it usually would. On the contrary I like the fact that things are finally back to normal. As we change he doesn't say anything and nothing happens and I find myself gulping in suspense.

We walk onto the field and I get my customary hug and newly customary kiss from Anna. As I pull away I plant a small kiss on her neck, liking the feeling of her pulse under my lips. She giggles, "Matt as much as I like that gym class is no place for that. We don't want to turn into Lindsay and Dylan now do we?"

Not able to argue with that I pull away and laugh as well, although the hunger has seemed to have gotten worse. Pulling apart coach calls us over and tells us we are going to be split up into different groups today. He wants the football players in the class to work separately from everyone else so that he can make sure we've been training for the past month or so.

Coach takes his football seriously.

Telling Anna goodbye I turn to Sam and by the look on his face he knew this was happening and his plan more than likely involved making me look like a fool.

Since we are all in gym clothes without padding or anything we are supposed to be playing a game of flag football. And we do, it just happens to be a little rougher than it's supposed to be played. Naturally within the two small teams we have he wants us to try and play our usual positions so I'm the QB of one team while the starting QB is on the other team. He manages to mix JV and V up pretty well and Sam turns out to be on the opposite team.

As I get into the game everyone is surprised that I'm keeping up and managing to outplay the Varsity defensive line. When we scrimmaged like this in the fall I got crushed. But now it's as if I can see the entire field and every detail in slow motion and am running faster than any of them.

Since the flag part wasn't followed we did have a few tackles, nothing horrible, but a few mishaps. Class draws to an end and as I'm about to throw a touchdown pass I fall down, glancing at my shoes I notice that Sam got a hold of them and messed with them. Seeing me fall three guys come out of nowhere and tackle me. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but before I know what's going on and before I touch the ground I manage to throw the ball in the smallest gap between two of the guys before getting sacked.

By the sounds of cheering I'm pretty sure we won. However one of the guys on top of me must have scraped his knee. The smell of iron hits my nose and suddenly my stomach growls louder than it ever has before. We stand up and he stays on the ground. Not moving towards the rest of my team I stay where I am and take off my shirt so I can bandage it. Without conscious thought I lean towards him as if I'm fixing it and lick the wound. The taste is exactly what I'd been craving all day.

The second I realize what I'm doing I shake my head, wipe my mouth, and wrap it up. Needing to get away I heard toward Sam.

"Dude what was that?" he asks.

"What was what?"  
"It's winter and you took your shirt off to help a guy who hates your guy gat bandaged. What are you a saint?"

At the moment I feel like a demon, but I don't mention that. "Yep, that's me St. Matthew."

He laughs and I awkwardly join in just glad he didn't see what happened. And by the words of thanks I receive from the senior he doesn't remember me doing anything. I wish I was that lucky.

I'm late to history and as I walk in Dylan shoots me a look. I mouth the word bathroom to him and he nods. That was the truth, I was in the bathroom, only not for the reason he probably thinks. I was in their washing my mouth out. I had licked some guys blood. Hell he could have had HIV for all I know!

At lunch I have no appetite. All I crave is something that I never will have again. I will not become a monster. Maybe I need to be checked into an asylum or something because I swear I'm going crazy with the images. And now apparently I'm a fucking cannibal!

After lunch, which thankfully was normal, I head to English. Just as in Math English isn't coming any easier to me. It was never hard for me, only now it seems to be a bit challenging. Every fiber in my body is telling me to say things wrong such as saying me and blank or blank and me instead of blank and I. I've never had that problem before!

"Mr. Nash," my teacher calls on me.

"Yes Ms. Hemlock?"

She looks at me funny, "Did you just call me Ms. Hemlock because that isn't funny."

"Um I'm sorry I don't know why I did."

"Detention today after school," she tells me before calling on someone else to answer the question. What the hell was that about?

My mind was playing tricks on me for the rest of the day. Along with the craving I had gained I felt as if ever since the incident this morning I could hear heartbeats and the blood flowing through my classmates veins.

As school ends I make my way to detention and spend my time doing simple grammar exercises that seem to fit with the name Ms. Hemlock that I said earlier. My stomach never settled down and it gets worse when I get home.

At home I sit down for dinner and scrunch my nose at the spaghetti in front of me. I eat it although it doesn't seem to satisfy my growing hunger. Therefore as I head to do homework I'm still famished.

Sitting down and doing my homework I hear the shower running and my head starts to hurt again. In a trance like state I stand up and walk to the bathroom where I see Sarah getting ready to take a shower. I beckon her forward and she does as I say. MY vision gets foggy as the girl in front of me goes from being Sarah to another young girl and back to Sarah.

She approaches me and I take my nail and slit her arm. Opening my mouth I start to suck on the wound and moan in ecstasy. This is exactly what I needed. The hunger fades and I realize what I'm doing. Afraid I was killing my sister I lick the wound and watch it disappear.

Once again I'm extremely dizzy and it takes every fiber of my being not to either go back to Sarah or fall down in the middle of the hallway. The second I hit my bed I pass out.

**Thank you everyone for the reviews. Updates will be sporadic for the next few weeks due to AP exams but I promise that in that time I am not giving up writing, but I really want 5s. Please continue giving me your thoughts. And due to the wait I will tell you that in the next chapter Matt gets a visit from a few ghosts.**


	9. Chapter 9

**7. Dream a Little Dream**

I wake up lying on a blue cloth hammock in a small 11x11foot room. Looking down I see that my body is burnt and as I touch my head I realize my hair is gone. I'm also all by myself, something that seems strange given the injuries I seem to have. As I stand up I'm surprised the injuries don't bother me, but then again my body doesn't seem to be mine. I feel taller and more built. That's when I realize that I must be dreaming.

I've never had a dream where I've known I'm dreaming, or that was obviously a dream. However given all the strangeness in my life recently it also wasn't too unexpected.

There's not much else in the room besides a second hammock that matches the one I was just lying on and two dressers, one next to each bed. Opening the one near _my_ hammock my eyes gravitate towards a journal that is sitting on a shelf by itself. Figuring this is a dream it wasn't exactly intruding. The journal proves fruitless anyway, it's the exact same as the journal I keep at home.

My ADHD kicks in and I start to find this room boring. Walking out of it I suddenly find myself transported to a giant cavernous room with a river leading out of it and what seems to be an oven and a table with various surgical tools. Time seems to slow down and I start to hear footsteps approaching. Not wanting to be seen I go and hide behind a stone pillar.

Two very pale figures walk towards the table with another body in hand. They put the body down and begin to take the organs out of the body and put them into jars. My stomach churns at the very sight, but for some reason I cannot look away. Once finished the two take a bite of the brain before throwing the body into the river. The younger of the two looks at me with wide white eyes.

Speaking in some strange language she, if they are human, turns to her companion and starts to point to me. As they start to approach me with what seems to be a murderous look in their white eyes an extremely little person grabs my hand and pulls me away. He's dressed in a blue robe and I cannot see his face or any of his body.

Out of the freaky room we walk through the cave until we end up in another room, this one resembling a gym. The small creature hands me a sword and disappears. Looking around I see a woman standing in what seems to be an arena, beckoning me over. Hesitantly I walk onto the arena and without warning the woman starts to sword fight with me. I dodge the sword without fighting back, not wanting to fight a girl. That is until she lands a blow and nicks my shoulder.

Groaning in pain I take my sword and fight back. Neither of us lands a blow and suddenly I appear on a bar with some weapon in my hand. The woman is on a bar as well and uses the weapon to knock me off the bar. I jump out of the way and after a long 'battle' manage to knock her over. Once she's down I get off the bar and help her up. She smiles at me as she stands.

"You've improved," she says cryptically.

"Who are you? Do I know you?"

"You should know the answer to both of those. Of course you know me, or you did long ago. Just remember Matt to follow your path and remember the past."

She fades and I groan, "Thanks for the answers," I scream even though she's gone. There's an entrance way a few yards away and I walk through it to find some answers. Along the walls of the cave is what seems to be moss, only it lights up. Confused I keep walking until I end up at two large doors closed doors. Frowning, I put my hand onto the door and surprisingly it opens. Now very intrigued I walk into the room and am surprised to see thrones. On one of them sits an old man with white hair, yet he seems to be strong considering his age. He radiates with power and age and since he is on a throne I bow.

The man cocks his head to the side and chuckles, "There's no need to bow."

"Aren't you royal saying you're sitting on a throne?"

"Bowing isn't the greeting I expected after all this time and especially not from you. Now sit," he tells me and points to the throne next to him.

I walk up and sit down, "This is mine isn't it? I don't get it how am I royalty."

"Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall," he answers cryptically

"Shakespeare?"

"Well yes, albeit I did help him with that specific scene. And yes you are a prince, although I don't think I've ever heard anyone call us royal before."

"I'm so confused," I admit.

"Oh Matt, I did miss your way with words and your honesty. Traits most seem to have lost over time. You know deep down what is happening. Just open yourself up."

"I don't know how."

"You'll remember eventually child. But also try to remember your enemies, they aren't gone and you aren't completely safe. Be careful before you are lost again."

Instead of him vanishing this time I do. Not even a second later I appear in another cavern, this one with a cage of stakes in the middle. Floating above the stakes is a blonde man with blue eyes and three strange scars on his cheek.

"I'm sorry," he tells me.

"Why apologize when I don't even know you? Let me guess I do know you, but I don't remember."

He smiles, "Your wit is charming. I just wanted to apologize for everything I did to you and good luck in the future. And just know that I'll be there, just differently."

Suddenly he becomes blindfolded and falls onto the stakes. For some unknown reason I cry at his death and then find myself in a cave that looks like a cave. It's small, damp, and dark. Standing is another man of medium build and a scarred face. He smiles at me widely. "It's good to see you."

"I'm going to say right back at you even though I'm not sure why."

His smile gets bigger, "I'll take that as a compliment. You seem different, but happy. I don't remember you being this happy."

"I'd settle for confused right now."

"True," he chuckles. "Be careful, the world is in your hands. And again I apologize for my snoring."

For some reason I laugh and this time I appear in a large tent not in a cave. In front of me is an extremely tall man who reminds me of Ms. Tall. "This time I'm taking a side," he declares.

"I don't quite understand."

"I'm picking your side Matt, I couldn't last time but this time I can."

"Okay," say slowly.

"And tell her I say hi."

After that short conversation I reappear in the cave where I first woke up in. I sit down on the hammock and flinch in surprise as a man appears on the hammock next to mine. He has orange hair and a scar above his eye. Actually it seems as if everyone has scars. His smile seems unusual, as if he doesn't usually smile. "You made me proud."

"Is this about my past I can't remember and then some cryptic message about me saving the world?"

"Just as cheeky," he chuckles. "But sadly yes. I'm not here to help you this time and the stakes are even higher."

"I don't understand," I say for the thousandth time.

"Of course not because you're still an ignorant child," he scoffs.

The insult doesn't offend me; it seems as if he's saying it jokingly as a good friend would. The spider that's been following me crawls onto the man's hand and I roll my eyes, "Let me guess she's yours."

"Actually I gave her to you years ago, but I guess the answer would be yes. Care for her, Octa will help you. I'm guessing everyone else told you to be careful, but I know you better than that Ma… Hell I can't call you that you aren't this matt guy and never will be."

"But I am Matt."

"Charna's guts! If you were we wouldn't be here. Screw the rules we are supposed to follow. Don't be careful, it isn't who you are. I've tried for years to get you to be careful and you never have. So follow your instinct and look for everyone who will help you. Things will change and if you deny everything again the world will end thanks to that evil pig."

"So basically my destiny is about to happen?"

"You could stay that," he scoffs. "Be careful when dealing with destiny Darren."

He screams as he disappears and another big man in yellow rain boots appears in his place and clucks his tongue, "He shouldn't have said that."

This guy squeezes his heart shaped pocket watch and I scream in agony before I wake up gasping for air on my bed to my alarm.

**Sorry it's so short, but I actually really like this chapter regardless of the length. **


	10. Chapter 10

**8. Questions Answered, Questions Asked **

Sam looks at me strangely on the bus. We talk as if nothing was wrong, but I could see the frown lines on his face. The spider I now knew as Madame Octa was sitting on my shoulder and seemed bored. I was a little confused since Sam didn't even seem to notice her.

It wasn't hard to shrug that off though, it was nothing stranger than anything else that had been going on recently. We walk into school and meet up with the rest of our friends. Anna comes up and kisses me quickly before frowning at me. "What?" I ask her.

"Nothing you just seem off today."

"Yeah I noticed it on the bus. He seems extra tired or something."

"I bet he was up all might having sex with Anna," Dylan suggests.

Lindsay hits him, "Come on Dyl that's ridiculous, Matt's too innocent to do anything like that."

I just roll my eyes, "Whatever guys, I just had a strange dream last night is all and I woke up as if I never actually got any sleep."

Dylan and Sam both snort; however before they can say anything Bill comes up to me and just glares. Me and my friends tense as he gets closer to us. The red haze clouds my vision again and I have to concentrate really hard and take deep calming breaths to get rid of the homicidal feelings I'm getting.

As soon as I calm down it seems as if the spider on my shoulder seems to be appeased at my control. Control of what I wasn't exactly sure though. "What do you want?" I question with the strange authority creeping into my veins and voice once again. However this time my friends aren't scared and stand behind me in support.

"Just a warning," he says with venom.

I scowl at him, "Well give me the warning."

"We're coming. He's mad and is picking sides this time. Watch your back."

Lindsay frowns, "If you want to fight him why give him warning?"

Without realizing it I growl at her for speaking such a dumb question. "A fight isn't fair unless both sides know. It shouldn't be a dirty fight it should be a war with dignity."

"Nicely said," Bill tells me. "See you when the time comes, I look forward to killing you."

"I came back twice, what makes you think that this time you will defeat me?"

Instead of answering me he just walks away but before he leaves he looks me in the eye and for a moment I could have sworn his eyes flash red. As he walks away the bell rings and I walk towards biology, slightly confused on what was going on.

Walking into the classroom I am greeted by the teacher who is once again wearing her dress that has the rope patterns. Octa winks at her and with the spider on my shoulder I sit down. Class starts and I start to doze off. The next thing I know the bell is ringing and I don't understand why nobody woke me up during class. My body starts to burn and I want to scream in agony.

"Mr. Nash?"

Everybody looks at me and for a second I'm confused, why are they looking at me? Slowly my mind wakes up and I walk over to the teacher. She gives me a once over. "You seem out of it Matt, are you feeling all right?"

"I just had a strange dream. And stop with the Matt stuff, my name is not Matt. You should know that Evanna."

Her smile grows, "Darren?"

"You're brother says hi," I smile at her. "And don't call me that, it isn't allowed quite yet."

After that the burning stops and my head feels as if it's about to explode. I get dizzy and look around. I don't get it I don't even remember class starting. "Where am I? Ms. Tall may you please explain what is going on."

"I'll explain later," she says with a grin on her face as if I just made her day although I don't know why."

"Please I need answers! I cannot remember anything from the past hour, I'm having strange dreams, and I'm going insane."

"No you're not. Just come see me after school and I'll explain all of it. If my brother has come to you then you deserve answers."

I just give her a confused look and she gives me a pass to third period since I missed second. My mind is still fuzzy on everything. Later as I walk into gym class Sam looks at me differently. I frown at him and he shrugs. When I try to talk to him he gives me one word answers and I don't know why. It must have to do with the chunk of time I seem to missing.

Anna seems to be the same way when we all meet up for a run. She gives me a hug and smiles at me, she talks to me as if nothing was wrong, but the look in her eyes told me that something had changed.

We ran and I had to work to slow down. And even though I was barely jogging I was still the first person to finish. Two miles in 8 minutes, guess that means I owe Anna a second date; not that I'm complaining.

History class couldn't end sooner and I walk into lunch feeling sluggish. Dylan is chatting away and I put in a nod and a few words once in a while until we reach the cafeteria. We sit down and everyone eventually comes. They stare at me and I just stare right back at them.

"Okay what are you guys thinking?"

They all look down in shame and Sam is the one who speaks up, "What the hell was that this morning?"

I shrug, "I have no idea," I admit.

Anna gives me a strange look, "I want to know more of what Bill was doing than you."

That question bugs me for a little while. I have been acting strange lately, but I had no idea what the hell Bill was doing. And actually I haven't even thought of that at all. "I have no idea," I repeat.

"All I know," Dylan says. "Is that you were incredibly badass. I mean I swear I can still feel some raw power coming off of you."

"Can we please change the subject?"

They all look at me again, but drop the subject. Sam turns to me, "So since you did the 8 minute thing again does that mean you're going on a second date with Anna?"

"Saying that I was going to ask her out anyway I'd go with yes."

"You were going to ask me out again?" she smiles.

Instead of answering her I just kiss her and hear my friends snicker. I turn to face them and after seeing the look in my eyes they shut up. On the outside I smirk at them, but on the inside I'm a bit mortified. I didn't mean for them to stop, and I have no idea why the hell they keep looking at me as if I'm in charge?

Lunch ends and the rest of the day goes by quickly. I fall asleep in a few of my classes and I can't figure out why I'm so tired yet was able to run as fast as I did?

As the day ends I walk into the biology classroom and Ms. Tall is sitting at her desk. Madame Octa jumps off of my shoulder and crawls over to her. Shaking my head and laughing I walk over to her desk and sit down opposite her. I make sure to get comfortable, I have a feeling I could be here a while.

"Hello Matt," she smiles.

"Ms. Tall," I nod and after a pregnant pause she speaks.

"So you want some answers?"

"Yeah, it seems as if my life isn't mine anymore and I need to know what's happening to me. And I cannot believe I just admitted that."

"Don't worry about it, I'll pretend I didn't hear it. Would you like a drink?"

"Sure," I tell her and she hands me the same drink I had the other times I was here. "So um I don't know what I should even start with. There's just too much I want to know."

"I can't tell you everything," she says apologetically. "But ask anything and I'll try to answer it."

"What am I?"

She sighs, "I can't answer that one to the extent you want me to. All I can tell you is that when the time is right you will know."

"So am I not even human?"

"You are, but you're also more than the average human."

I let that sink in, "Is that why I can run so fast and I seem to be so strong?"

"Yes," she chuckles. "But if I were you I'd try to keep that a secret. It wouldn't be a good idea to let people know exactly how fast and strong you are if you even know the degree yourself."

"So I'm kind of like a superhero?"

"You could say that."

"Would that make the spider my sidekick? I don't get it, in my dream a man with orange hair and a scar told me that she was his and that he gave her to me to protect me."

"Tell me more about this dream of yours."

"Well," I start. "I woke up in this blue hammock and was walking through a giant cave. Eventually I ended up in a large cavernous room and saw these strange people with white eyes doing something that looked like embalming. They were about to attack me when a very little person came and saved me. Then I ended up on other parts of the giant cave talking to people who were warning me about something. Oh except for one of the people who appeared in what seemed to be a circus."

When I finish she wipes a tear from her face and I'm a little confused as to why she would. "Do you remember what you were thinking during the dream?"

"I was confused. For one I knew it was a dream, but it seemed to not be a dream at the same time. And I felt older and I was bald with burns everywhere. In a way it seemed as if I was in someone else's body. Then when I was talking to people I felt as if I knew them."

"What else has seemed strange to you recently."

"Well I can see in the dark better, obviously since I'm a superhero."

"Oh Matt you make me laugh," she interrupts.

"Glad to be of service," I smile and take a sip of my drink. "I seem to know a lot of stuff that I don't know how I know. Like in history class we were talking about battle strategies and everyone seemed to be in awe of how much I know. But the weirdest thing is the strange visions I'm getting."

"Visions of the future?"

"I don't think so, they seem too familiar. I get a horrible headache and then my surroundings change and I'm seeing events that seem to have happened. I was swimming and suddenly I was drowning. Or I was in the hospital and saw a boy about my age in the bed. They seem to be flashbacks. And suddenly my pictures aren't turning out right."

"That's part of being a superhero, not being on camera. Do you believe in past lives Matt?"

"No, well I didn't," I correct myself. "Until recently I didn't, but now I'd have to say maybe."

"Sometimes we remember things from past lives, and that is what is happening to you. everything you've been seeing are events that have happened to you."

"And the dream?"

"I'm guessing you knew these people too," she tells me and by the tone of her voice I know it's more than a guess.

"Oh in the dream at the end a man called me by another name, although now I cannot seem to remember what it was. Then a short man in yellow rain boots came to him and threatened him. After that I woke up."

I swear Ms. Tall growled a bit, "This is more serious than I imagined."

"What do you mean? Please tell me Ms. Tall."

"All I can say is that you have a big destiny in front of you."

"That's what people in my dream said. Something about that scares me. I'm guessing you can't tell me anything else about my destiny."

"Afraid not," she smiles sympathetically.

"Would the past life thing make it so I'm out of control sometimes? I swear sometimes I do things that seem to be someone else doing them. Like this morning we were talking to this senior and he threatened me."

Octa whispers something in her ear, err I'm guessing by the actions both were displaying. "Tell me the exact conversation."

I tell it all to her, "I think that was it, my memory could be off."

"No I believe that is it. I'll have to find this kid and have a chat with him. Anything more questions?"

"Yeah, people seem to listen to me. I mean they always did, but this is as if I command and they follow. My friends said that I'm radiating power and it seems as if they listen to every word. Is there a reason why?"

"You do radiate power, more than they even know but their minds won't let them see the sheer amount of it. People listen to power."

"Am I royalty or something? In my dream some old man called me a prince and that seems like the type of person who would have so much power."

"In your past life you were a prince," she says simply and doesn't say anything else on the subject.

I just nod at her, "Thank you for answering my questions Ms. Tall."

She smiles, "No problem Matt."

I pause for a moment, "Hey how come my friends can't see Octa? I mean sometimes they can and sometimes they can't."

"In all honesty I don't know."

This seems strange to me and I don't know what to say. Instead I grab my stuff and get ready to leave. I make it to the door and that's when I realize I didn't ask her something, "Ms. Tall something happened to me that I don't understand."

"And what would that be?"

I take a deep breath, "I think I drank blood yesterday."

Her face contorts into a look of shock, but she quickly shakes that away, "I can't tell you anything about that Matt."

I kind of figured that and without another word I walk out of the door.


	11. Chapter 11

**9. the First Attack**

I don't recall exactly how I ended up in the forest. All I remember is walking out of Ms. Tall's room and then I was so shocked from information overload that here I am standing outside of the woods near the school, stuck walking home.

My house is pretty far from the school, thus why I take a bus. But the activity bus doesn't leave for a while and I don't feel like sitting around and nobody at home could pick me up. So now I was walking. Usually I hated having to walk with my backpack full of heavy books, however my backpack no longer really felt heavy and the weight didn't slow me down. On the contrary I was walking faster than ever.

Taking the sidewalk the walk was about an hour, through the woods it was about 45 minutes so that was the route I was planning to travel. And based on the time a lot of it will be in the dark, but that doesn't bug me.

I felt at home near these woods too, always have. Living here for 14 years makes things familiar but even as a kid I was able to navigate these woods better than the majority of people. Maybe it had something to do with my past life, if I did believe that.

Now a little way into the walk I find a rock to sit on near the creek so that I can pause and think for a moment. The information that I was told just began to sink in. I'm still not sure what I believe though. What Ms. Tall told me makes complete sense, but at the same time it's so outlandish. I mean apparently I was some superhero prince in a past life and for some reason I'm remembering it. Oh and plus someone wants to kill me because of this, I think that's why, and my destiny is to save the world.

Well obviously the superhero thing is a cover for the truth that was close enough to reality, but still it's insane. But a part of me doesn't think it is, and that scares me. It makes too much sense. The dream, the weird blackout visions, déjà vu, my unnatural strength and speed, and well everything. I wonder how Bill fits into all of this.  
My guess is that he works for the people hunting me down; the fat guy in rainboots from my dream seems to be involved based on Ms. Tall's reaction. But why is it that I hold the key to saving everything? I shudder, this seems eerily familiar.

On top of that I'm on edge, strange considering where I am and how I go here to calm down. It seems to be the creek that's setting me off. Usually the sound is calming, but now it's just making me anxious. Not being able to stand it anymore I walk over to a relatively high tree and start to make my way up.

When I was younger my friends and I always used to climb up, even though I'm petrified of heights. Of course being about Sarah's age we never actually made it to the top, hell we barely made it to the first branch. But now I was older and a star athlete, not even mentioning the weird powers I have, so it was extremely easy to make my way to the top of the tree where the sound of the creek was less irritating. Actually I'm surprised I can still hear it, but my hearing seems to have improved too.

Really, I'm just glad to get away from it. For some reason I imagined myself drowning, actually I seemed to remember falling and drowning just as I did the other day at the creek. My head hurts and once again I am somewhere else.

This time I'm in the same cave where my dream took place and I'm being carried away by the river in the middle with a skeleton next to me.

Back in reality on the tree fear overtakes me. I don't get a chance to figure out what it meant or to even think about it because suddenly I hear a twig snap, odd that I could even hear it, and voices arguing.

"I smell him," one of them says in a deep voice.

"He's close," another replies.

I look down and notice a third one right behind them sniffing at the base of the tree, "He's up here," she screams and the three of them look up.

My first thought was to stay completely still and quiet, but they could see me ana apparently smell me so I'm guessing they could hear my breathing and my chest. Either way they knew where I was and I was trapped.

"Get down here Halfling," the fat one snarls, yeah snarls.

"Who are you talking about," I yell back. "this is not the um Halfling you are looking for."

They either do not understand my joke or just don't appreciate it since they don't laugh and instead the extremely fat one and the female one look to the hairy one (the leader from the looks of it)and he nods.

Faster than I can see they start to climb and in a second are right in front of me. I'm not proud of it, but it couldn't be helped and I scream. The female opens its mouth as if to bite me while the other one grabs my arms and legs. She stops right before my neck and snaps her teeth together before they grab me more securely and jump off the tree with me in tow, landing on their feet.

Throwing me to the ground they look back up at their leader and he starts stalking me as if I'm prey, which more than likely I am. He takes his grotesquely long finger nails and slashes my arm. Then even more disturbingly he leans down and takes a sip of my blood and I start to feel it enter his mouth. Definitely not a feeling I want to experience again.

In an even weirder turn of event he spits it out, "What's going on?" I shout and watch my arm as it heals suddenly.

"Oh Halfling how out master will be pleased to have you in his hands."

"Halfling? What do you mean I'm just human?"

They all chuckle and the female answers me, "Silly Halfling your blood begs to differ. If it wasn't than David here would not have spit the poison out."

I'm even more confused now, but all I know is that it isn't a good idea to stay ehre and let these sadistic animals torture me. Using my new found strength I start to push them away, only they won't budge and they hit me with even more force.

"You are strong for a Halfling?" the fat one muses. "How peculiar I believe this is definitely the exact one now. No normal halfie would be able to do that.

This time I use my free leg and kick the female to the ground. The other two growl at me and when I say growl I mean in an animalistic way. "Don't touch us," they yell and punch me in the nose. I squeal in pain as blood trickles down my face and onto my chest. Damn I think they broke it.

I start to struggle again to no avail and then after the female comes back over and punches me in the chest before kicking my head. After that it takes all of my energy just to stay awake and I begin to give up.

At this point I realize that there is no way that I can live. This pleases the three and the leader throws me over his back before taking off at an alarmingly fast speed. And by alarmingly fast I mean I can't even see what's around us and I'm pretty sure I'm going faster than a car.

After a few minutes, and probably hundreds of miles away from home, something hits the leader and he drops me. And of course the impact is my head once again and I'm just glad I do not have a broken scull.

Now that I'm not moving as fast I see that another item comes towards us and see that it's a boomerang. Peculiar saying that I've only seen them in movies that take place is Australia and didn't realize that people actually used them as weapons. This one hits the fat one and the female all at once.

They don't fall, but I push through the pain and use the distraction to go and attack them. Of course they don't just let me beat them up though and start to attack me in return. But somehow I have learned martial arts in the past five minutes and find that the moves to get them away come relatively easy to me.

Well the moves do, actually landing a blow against three of them is much harder. I manage to knock the female down and the fat one, both lying on the ground unconscious. But the leader is strong, wicked strong and lands another blow to me, knocking me onto my knees.

He pulls a dagger out from his belt and takes it to my head to kill me except another figure with a dagger comes up and slits his throat, effectively killing it. I look up to my savior and see a filthy guy with green hair who was wearing animal skins and who has red skin as if he had been in the sun way too long.

"Thank you," I whisper through my horse voice.

He smiles, "No problem."

"Whoa are you?"  
"Can't tell you that yet, just know that I'm a friend." I cannot answer because at that moment I pass out.

The next thing I know I am lying on my bed, but my eyes still will not open. "What happened?" a familiar voice asks.

"They tried to kidnap him but in the process ended up about to kill him," my savior answers  
"But they need him so why would they kill him?"

"Your guess is as good as mine Harkat, he should be waking soon though so we should get out of here."

Neither of them move and the one whose name I now learned is Harkat spoke, "I feel weird leaving, I was always there after he passed out."  
"It has been a while, but it's not time and we'll see him soon."

They disappear out of the room after that and after a few more minutes I start to regain use of my body and sit up with a groan. Thankfully I am able to walk down the stairs though and ignore most of the pain. I look in the mirror on the stairs and gasp at my bruises. I really am dreading changing and having to see the rest of my body because my face is bad enough. God knows what the hell I'm going to tell my parents.

I sit down at the table for dinner and wave meekly. "Hey."

"Matt," my Dad starts.

"I can explain! I was pushed down the stairs today at school by some senior I beat in wrestling. Actually he's why I stopped because he was making my life miserable."

They seem to buy it, "Oh my gosh sweetie are you okay? I should call the school."

"No Mom don't, it's over and it wouldn't help at all," I plead.

"Fine, but one more incident and I will call," she vows.

I nod and conversation switches from that to Sarah telling us about how Annie's going. It's nice to have a normal family dinner and talk about normal things. Much preferred to the fantastical story my life has become recently.

Later my Dad and I are sitting in the family room watching college football and I turn to him, "Dad do you believe in past lives?"

"Why?" he asks confused, I don't normally talk very philosophically.

"We were reading a book in English about them," I tell him and am surprised at how easy it is to lie to them.

He pauses for a moment before answering, "Not sure, but it would be cool to live more than one life Although it may get monogamous if you remember them."

I just nod because I agree with him now, past lives have to exist for at least some people. Or at least it is for me even if it isn't the norm. The term Halfling strikes a chord and could be the truth instead of just saying I'm a superhero. Plus the guy who saved me was so familiar and I knew how to fight.

Maybe I should talk to Ms. Tall again. I needed to anyway since I forgot to ask her about the blood thing. If I knew what a Halfling was maybe I could understand it.

A few hours later I'm lying in bed when I do a double take. It just occurs to me that my attackers weren't normal, but in the moment I didn't consciously notice it.

All three of them had red eyes and purple skin.

**I'm using creative license and making Halfling a thing, it should be obvious what it is and if not either ask in a review or PM or wait a few chapters and find out with Matt. And yay I introduced two more of our favorite characters who will soon become important and appear a lot!**


	12. Chapter 12

**10. Uncontrolled**

Waking up in the morning, well let's just say that I wish I hadn't woken up. My body was so sore that I could barely move and I was bruised from head to toe. I was not going to stay home though, that was going to raise suspicion. So with all of the little bit of strength I can muster I get out of bed and go through my morning routine, rather begrudgingly I may add.

On the bus ride to school and before first period I go through the motions and banter with my friends, kiss my newfound girlfriend a little, and give my homework to Sam and Dylan to copy. Being smarter than them made it so they tortured me until I allowed them to copy it since the girls wouldn't.

But in reality things were far from okay. I was a walking bruise, my bones felt broken, and it hurt to breathe. My life seemed to not belong to me but to a past version of myself, I think that was it. I was craving blood which had something to do with being a Halfling. And oh right there were purple creatures and a fat man hunting me.

The only good thing was that there wasn't another confrontation with Bill, who was also somehow connected to this. And I actually remembered first period today unlike yesterday which was a plus. During biology I was a little torn about asking Ms. Tall for more answers or not. In the end I didn't.

I had no idea what to even ask, or if she would have even answered anything else after all of the cryptic answers from yesterday. Even though I really wanted to ask her about the blood thing, all my imagination could come up with was vampire, which was even more insane than past lives. More than likely I was a mutant which was why I was so much stronger and stuff, vampires didn't exist.

The guy with the green hair and the other guy named Harkat were on my mind. Maybe they knew Ms. Tall. It would make sense but saying that nothing made sense anymore I had no clue what to think.

She avoided my gaze the entire time so I couldn't ask her anything anyway and I didn't really care either way.

By the time I walked into gym I was panicking. My body was so beat up that I had no idea how the hell I was going to handle that. As it turns out we were playing football again too. Just my luck since we were being split into actual players and non-players again. The guys were not going to go easy on me and as the county champions this year they were extremely effective when it came to tackling me.

I glared at Coach, I know he didn't know I was hurt but I was still pissed nonetheless. He must have felt it too because he turns his head in my direction and shivers when he sees me. A hiss makes its way up my throat and it escapes in a low sound, low enough that he couldn't hear it. Oh he felt it through and tries to turn his head away, but can't. Ugh I just wish he would let me go to the other game where it wasn't actual players and help them.

A loud pitched whistle screeches and he gestures me over. Shit he was going to give me detention or something just for looking at him. To my surprise he didn't though. Instead he asks me to go over and help the other people work on their pathetic excuses for a pass. I stare at him dumbstruck until he pushes me over there. With a wince I rush over to Anna and fix her arm before going to a few others.

Was coach special like me and could read my mind?

It didn't matter though and I don't dwell on it for very long. There was so much in my life right now that I couldn't be bothered to worry about something else now. During gym Madam Octa crawled onto my shoulder. I hadn't seen her all day so it was a bit surprising to see her. She was such a constant recently that it was starting to feel weird without her in my life. Wow I really just said that about a spider.

Then lunch came and sitting with my friends turned out to be more difficult that I imagined. Dylan always has to punch me, well him and Lindsay, so whenever either one would try to I would have to dodge it, which also hurt like hell. On top of that even Anna's arm around me also hurt.

My appetite was missing. The sandwich I had didn't taste good whatsoever. What I was craving was a giant steak, which from the Science channel I knew meant that I was iron deprived. I had never had an iron issue.

The only other thing I was craving was pickled onions. They had always been my favorite snack and I always loved them but now it seemed more than that. As if part of me was literally dying without them. So it was a very good thing that I managed to snag some this morning and sneak them into my lunch, Mom didn't like me to eat them saying that it made my breath too smelly.

Sam, who despised the smell of them as well, grabs them and tosses them into the trashcan. Just as before in gym class my ire boils over the top and before I can realize what I'm doing my arms reach across the table and I lunge at his neck. Squeezing hard enough to chock him without leaving any marks. Right at the point where it's about to be too much for him three identical gasps from around me bring me back to reality. Snapping out of it I let go of him.

I look down in shame and have no idea what to say, how do I explain to them that I didn't mean to do it? They look at me expectantly and Anna slides away from me. "You just got punked?" I squeak and it sounds pathetic even to me. Nobody says a word and I sigh, "I'm sorry." Without another glance at any of them I get up and turn away. It was obvious that they were all uncomfortable with me around.

With nowhere to go I start walking around the football field. There's a loan ball sitting on the sidelines and I grab it, heading to the end zone. Looking up I take a big breath as if I was about to play a game and throw the ball. I'm a quarterback and a great one at that considering my age, but even I couldn't throw it too far. Yet the ball soars through the air and ends up going right through the tire hanging from the posts in the opposite end zone.

Another ball is sitting at my feet and I throw it to the ground in aggravation. Probably the wrong move saying that it ended up making a hole in the field. Great is football out of the question now too?

The bell rings so without a glance at the field I walk back into the school to head to class. On my way there I walk past the nurse's office and freeze when I see Sam sitting there with an icepack on his neck. I frown at myself and walk in. "Dude are you okay?"

"You suddenly care, do you Matt?"

I walk over and sit next to him, "Just don't. I said I was sorry and in all honesty I have no idea what I even did."

"It was pretty obvious from where the rest of us were sitting. What's gotten into you lately?"

"I wish I knew," I laugh dryly.

He frowns, "I told Coach that you weren't on steroids the other day but are you? Or are you on drugs? Because I swear you aren't the Matt I've grown up with. You've been impulsive and erratic and frankly I have no idea how to explain your behavior to you."

"You sound like my parents."

"I was serious we've all talked about it. You know Anna's been thinking maybe you two can't even work out since you've gotten so weird."

I nod, "I didn't but I'm not surprised."

We're both silent for a moment and then suddenly a fist comes flying towards my face. Reacting on instinct I grab it and twist his arm backwards. Shock fills my veins and I am suddenly frozen. Then suddenly another fist comes out of nowhere and I don't react. Sam's fist contacts with my face and I groan in agony. Thankfully he doesn't have the best hook in the world and doesn't manage to do any damage. But on top of the injuries I sustained yesterday this just made it that much worse.

That feeling comes over me again and I want to rip his head off. I grab some random item next to me and I'm about to hit him over the head when I'm suddenly in a fight with the guy I saw in the hospital during my first vision. He's coming out me just as I'm going after Sam.

It does the trick and I drop whatever it is I'm holding. "Something's wrong with me," I tell him honestly and he gives me a strange look, not sure what to say.

"What are you on?"

"Nothing," I whimper and try my best to gain control of my emotions because I was seriously feeling like a girl right now with how moody I was. He gives me a disbelieving glance. "I'm serious; I'm not on any drugs."  
"Then what is it?" he asks as we both walk out of the nurse's with icepacks in our hands. Now I'm really not sure what to do, do I tell him the truth or not?

We go to the office and try to convince the secretary to let Dylan out of class. Sam tries first and fails epically. When I go and ask her she also turns me down. Anger boils beneath my skin and I scream in my head to let her let him go. Out loud I ask her nicely and bat my eyelashes, which Anna loves, and she calls him down.

Dylan gives me the death glare as he meets us outside of the office. I smile at him but he just punches my jaw. Unlike Sam Dyl has two older brothers and knows how to pack a punch. And if it wasn't before my jaw is now definitely broken, it hurts to even talk, but I shrug it off. My jaw's been broken before but even though this is just as bad it doesn't seem as bad as it should have been. Must be something to do with being whatever I am.

My two friends whisper to each other, presumably about me but I manage to tune them out. I'm in so much pain that their words can't even register in my head. All I can think about is how much my face hurts. It starts to feel a little better as we reach our favorite hidden closet in the locker room.

On the first day of football season Dylan was so excited and literally was bouncing off of walls. One said wall turned out to be a hidden door to an old supply closet. At first we were positive somebody was hiding a dead body in there, but there were none. Ever since then it had become a sort of hidden place for the three of us to go. We eve furnished it a little; it was relatively big, with a few couches.

I sit down on my normal seat, making sure to stay as far away from them as possible so that I didn't hurt them again. Sam turns to me and repeats his earlier question, "What are you on?"

"I told you I'm on nothing," I yell in aggravation.

"Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery," Dylan says half-jokingly.

"Oh I know I have a problem," I snort. "It's just not drug related."

"So you weren't completely out of control as if you were high when you almost chocked me to death."  
"And you haven't been like PCP strong lately," Dylan adds."

"No I was, but it isn't drugs."

"Then what else explains it!"

"I don't know, nobody will tell me. But I've had creepy purple people kidnap me yesterday and I know things I shouldn't and I can do things that no ordinary person should be able to do! I don't think I'm human," I whisper.

"Come talk to us when you actually have the truth," Dylan tells me and he and Sam get up to leave.

Another growl rumbles in my chest. How dare they not believe me! Faster than they could see I jump in front of the door and crouch in front of it. "Nobody's leaving."

They stare at me in fear, "Okay," Sam mumbles and sits back down with a pissed off Dylan right next to him.

They gasp, "Matt, what's wrong with your eyes?'

I look in a mirror hanging on the wall and my eyes widen in disbelief. Instead of the already startling emerald green that proves I'm adopted, okay I'm not but I didn't get my eyes from anyone even though now I guess the old version of me did, weren't green anymore. Instead staring at me was a beast.

My face was contorted in a menacing glower as if I was going to pounce and kill them. My mouth was open in a snarl. But most shocking were the eyes. My eyes were a bright silver with swirling red and black in them, almost no pupil. I suddenly get angry at the situation again and one turns pure black while the other turns bright red.

"Believe me now?"


	13. Chapter 13

**11. Through thick and thin**

The two of them just shake their heads and stare at me with a loss of words. Not that I blame them for that, if I was them I would be doing the same thing. Dylan continues to examine me as if I was a circus freak while Sam starts cracking up. That's a bit surprising. Usually when something baffles him he shuts down completely or rambles on and on in nervousness.

Instead he just keeps on laughing and looks around the room suspiciously. "Okay guys I get it this is a giant punk you can come out now. And I have to say I totally bought it until a second ago the eyes were just a bit too fake."

_Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale,_ "The eyes are real Sam this isn't a prank."

"Of course it is as payback for all the shitty pranks I've pulled on you. I had no clue you had this in you Matt, I've got to go to class I can't ditch English again."  
With one last brief look at me he just shakes his head and walks away. I'm not mad though. How could I be mad when it is hard to believe and does seem like something that would be on Pranked? Except there are no cameras, I know that even though I wish there were.

Dylan is still sitting in silence staring at me. An unknown part of me is scared of this, much more than when Sam left and the fear of him telling people or something. But no Dylan's reaction that seemed to be curiosity and belief reminded that part of me that was me but wasn't of something. Out of nowhere a wave of worry that him wanting to know about all of this would lead him to wanting a part in it which would lead to his death.

The smell of pickled onions comes along with this feeling and once again I swear I'm losing my mind.

"What's going on?" Dylan asks so quietly that I almost didn't hear it.

"Dude you're never going to believe me," I snort and he gives me a 'try me' look. "Okay apparently I'm some sort of superhero and I have a bounty that psychopaths are trying to kill me. And before you ask I'm not on drugs."

"Well on the bright side the superhero gets the girl," he laughs. Dylan tends to bring in humor when he was uncomfortable.

"Funny, but I'm not really a superhero, that's just what Ms. Tall is saying because I'm not exactly supposed to know the truth yet."

"Well that explains why you're always with her but what the fuck?"  
I don't know how to explain all of it in a sentence or two so I figure telling him the entire story would be best. We'll have to skip the rest of the day and I pray that my parents don't find out. They don't really like it when I ditch even one class.

So I launch into a tale of the past few weeks of my life starting with the weird feeling during wrestling practice and the picture fiasco and finishing with my strange attitude this morning. I leave out the part about the blood though, it wouldn't really be a good idea to tell him that. I also don't mention the past life thing even though that was the biggest past. If I did he would ask too many questions about it and I didn't really know. Even with what I'm telling him there's a chance he'll lock me up. Maybe my eyes will convince him though. Glancing in the mirror I notice that they're back to the normal startling emerald.

"Well then it's pretty much a given that we're going to win state's again next year and would in wrestling if you rejoin the team."

"So you believe me?"

"No dude every person comes up with that farfetched of an excuse to cover up drugs and steroids. And I've seen you run faster than you should and you beat Bill and well that stuff. Plus changing eye color isn't a sign of drugs according to Ms. Pierce."

I crack a smile, "I mean if any health teacher knows about drugs it would be Ms. Pierce I still say she's on heroin."

"Nope, it's definitely acid and pot. But anyways do you know anything?"

I shake my head, "What I told you is all I know."

"So you don't even know what species you are?"

"No, but…" I start before he cuts me off.

"And how's Bill related to all this?'

He really needs to stop asking me questions even though I told him everything I know and he sounds way too excited about it as well. Before I even think it my hand is on his larynx as if I'm going to rip it out. My nails scrape his chest and his scream makes me dig in a bit deeper. Blood seeps out and stains my fingers. I go in as if to lick it and stop myself before he may realize that little detail.

"Damn your fingernails are sharp."

I look down at them and stare in wonder that he's right. "You want to get out of here?"

"Sure practice was canceled today so we can head to my house and play video games. I'll text Sam to come over."

We walk out of the closet and into the crowd of kids rushing to get home when he looks at me and shivers a bit, "Matt fix your eyes man they're creepy and may draw a bit of attention. I don't get it they were fine and the second you looked at me as if you were going to kill me they changed. Are you sure you aren't possessed or something.

Instead of answering I just hit his arm and he winces. Dylan lives relatively close to the school so unlike to my house the walk was less than ten minutes. I was relieved by that too, no chance of getting kidnapped in the middle of a street full of kids.

Sam didn't end up coming over. He said it was because he had to study for an algebra test but I knew that wasn't the reason. In reality he was wigged out by me and more than a little terrified. I wasn't mad though. Hell he probably was worried that I was going to kill him. And in the mood I'm in it wouldn't surprise me. On top of that I still wasn't sure if he thought it was a prank or not.

"So what can you do exactly?" Dylan asks as we sit there flipping through channels.

"Um run fast and lift heavy things, not much."

"You can do more than that even from what I've seen. Come on you have this new aura that like demands respect."

I frown, "Oh um I don't really know. Apparently others like me are princes though." It was true; I just left out a lot.

"Okay whatever but there has to be more to you if people are coming after you?"

"Well apparently I'm not a normal Halfling but that doesn't answer anything since I don't know what a Halfling is."

He shakes his head at me, "Obviously you're like half human half something else."

That would actually make sense, "That would make sense. Want to see something?"

Dylan nods enthusiastically, "Yeah come on and show me what you got."

We turn on the video gaming system and put in _Halo_. Usually I suck at video games, they just aren't my thing and Dylan knows it. On the other hand he's a beast at it and I don't know anybody who beats him.

It doesn't even take a minute for me to get in the lead and kill him. Dylan groans and tries to kill me. Only he can't. The game continues in this fashion for about half an hour before he gives up and throws the controller to the floor.

"What did this show besides that suddenly you're good at video games?"

"It's why I am good. MY peripheral vision has improved so I can see your hands move before you actually press anything and my reflexes are also suddenly a lot better."

"Cheater," he whines

"Sore loser," I shoot back. "Any more questions."

"Is the spider here now?" he asks with a shaky voice. Dylan has arachnophobia.

I look around, "Next to your foot."

He looks down and gasps as Madame Octa glances up at him in understanding. "That's insane."

"I don't know why she's following me but she is."

He shudders, "Ugh get her away before I kill her."

She hears him and runs away onto my shoulder, "She seems to like me."

"Maybe you're spider man."

"Last time I checked I wasn't shooting webs from my wrist or sticking to everything. Although how cool would it be to have web shooting action?"

"Being superman would be better. I'd totally become the next MVP of the team and knock you of your pedestal."

"In your dreams Dyl, in your dreams."

It's quiet for a moment until he looks up at me with a serious gaze in his eyes, "You know I'll help you find this stuff out." I nod and he continues. "And don't worry I won't tell anyone not even Sam but I will try to get him to talk to you again."

"And please don't tell him the truth to convince him."

"Sure can we end the chick flick moment now?"

"With pleasure," I laugh and take a swig of my coke before beating him some more.

**Not my favorite chapter but the next three have a lot of serious stuff in it so I wanted a lighter chapter even though it isn't fluff. Oh and sorry I'm a few minutes late at updating I didn't get home until later than I expected tonight.**


	14. Chapter 14

**12. The Man in the Boots**

The rest of the week passed by slowly and I was more than aggravated by it. My friends were all on edge every time they came within a hundred feet of me; even Dylan was bad about it. Sam pretended the fiasco didn't happen, for now I was fine with him not believing me. What as I was happy about though was that all of my friends, sans Dyl, were pretending that the other day didn't happen so everything was going back to normal.

And that definitely put a damper on my still new relationship with Anna.

Dylan was being a huge help though. With my tolerance getting thinner by the day I was close to snapping on everyone all too often. Thankfully he was there to help calm me down and make sure that I didn't kill anyone. He also warned me every time my eyes changed, which also happened a lot. What we found was that it seemed to be based on my mood.

On the other hand he was also insanely obnoxious now that he knew the truth, err most of the truth. All he wanted to do was ask me questions about what I could and couldn't do. And in all honesty since I had no clue what the extent of my abilities were I couldn't really answer him. Plus it was all he wanted to talk about as if I wasn't a normal person anymore. And well I wasn't but that wasn't the point. Weird Halfling thing or not I was still Matt.

Ms. Tall tried to get my attention a few times, but now _I_ was ignoring her. I had no clue what to say to her and even if I did I needed some space. Right now I didn't need any more half-ass answers from her. It was time to figure this out myself.

And that was why I was standing in the middle of the woods with Dylan. We're spending our Saturday figuring out what the hell I can do and maybe give me some answers. Personally I would rather spend it with Anna. But she and Lindsey were on some shopping spree together. And Sam said he had some family obligation. Or that was what he said; it may be so he could put distance between us.

No matter the reason it did allow Dylan and me to use the time for research purposes. Well that was what he called it, I called it torture Matt time.

"Come on you can do more than that," Dylan yells and ties a bigger rock around my ankle before blowing his whistle signaling me to run some more. He was trying to test my endurance, strength, and speed all in one. After he tied a bigger rock onto me I ripped it off and threw it.

"Dude this is getting to be a little bit insane."

"Come on we've gotten a lot of information."  
"You mean watching me in pain?"

He nods, "Basically."

I groan, "Well at least I'm not doing this with a rock half my weight and in the water with no air and only one way out."  
"What the hell?"

"Um I don't know," I admit.

"Seriously you've been saying a lot of weird things lately, even more than this Halfling this probably entails. It's like you're talking about another life."

"Um, err," I stumble not sure what to say

"What are you keeping from me?"

"I have a secret identity. You see me as Clark Kent but you have yet to see my Superman."

"I don't know you're more of a Bruce Wayne to me."

We both snort, knowing all too well that the superhero thing was a lie but I didn't want to talk about it. After that he has me run some more laps. About an hour later I was sweating my ass off. I had run about fifteen miles and even jumped from tree stems through half the forest.

Overall I felt as if my muscles had turned to jello and I could barely move. Even worse was that my pain caused Dylan entertainment. I feel my eyes change and take deep breaths to calm myself down.

Five minutes of a break later I'm testing to see if I have any mind powers. First I stare at an object and will it to move…it doesn't. Then I focus on Dylan and try to read his mind…fail once again. I cannot set things on fire or teleport either. And apparently I cannot shape shift either. Well we're pretty sure I can't do any of these things. There was only so much we could do.

And even though I was just staring intensely at stuff it still made my head hurt. Groaning in agony Madame Octa appears on my shoulder. Arachnophobic Dylan must not see her since he doesn't comment. Damn I wish she wouldn't do that and just appear to everyone. It's a bit weird to see her when no one else can,

Suddenly Dylan jumps back, "When did she get here?"

I frown, "She's been here."

"No she appeared out of thin air."

Right she was invisible, but why did she appear to him the second I thought it. Ms. Tall did seem to be able to communicate with her. I send my thoughts out to her, **Can you hear me? **She nods and suddenly I remember the flute incident a few weeks back **Stand on one leg****_._** To my surprise she obliges.

"What's she doing?" Dylan wrinkles his nose.

"Apparently I can control her and communicate telepathically with her," I say with bewilderment.

""Seriously what are you?"

I sigh, "I wish I knew. Can we be done for the day now Vanez."

"Who's Vanez?"

"Again I have no idea." I laugh and he joins in. Ugh why the hell do I have to have these memories that I can't understand. In the end he _allows_ me to take a break.

By now we were both starving so we head out to downtown, not that it was really big or anything. He was craving tacos and I wanted a steak again. But since there wasn't really any steakhouses open for lunch I settled with Mexican. Anything sounded okay as long as it wasn't soup even though the reason was also foreign to me.

Once lunch was over we went back to the forest and began to test me some more. Obviously the only nonphysical ability I has was to control and talk to a spider. And as I can tell that isn't going to help me defeat any weird purple people. Although it may help if it was like a dragon or a herd of spiders.

Dylan was still convinced that I could do something more so I spent another hour staring at him and was now trying to make him move. Obviously it didn't work and I was just getting fed up with him.

This was getting redundant and making me feel like crap. "Dyl can we please just stop?"

"Did Michael Jordan stop when he didn't make the high school team?"

"Um I suck at basketball that's why I went out for wrestling," I remind him.

He snorts, "I'd bet that now you'd be the best on the team. But okay did Joe Montana ever stop practicing? Or did Brett Favre quit after all of his seasons or did he keep playing even though he didn't necessarily win all of those super bowl rings he may deserve?"

I had to admit he did have me there by naming the two quarterbacks I idolize most as one myself. And when he put it that way he did have a point. But seriously I had been at this for hours, "One more sprint through the woods and that's it."

"Maybe," he concedes and I roll my eyes. Dylan was making the worst trainer ever.

Regardless I started to jog through the woods anyway. I had already done this multiple times but I hope if I made it back fast enough then I wouldn't have to do anything else. Because a Halfling thing or not I still obviously got tired. Halfway through the run I have to stop and grab my stomach in pain as I hear it rumble and I bend down to grab it,

Throughout all of this training I had notice myself getting hungrier and hungrier and weaker and weaker. And of course my lunch didn't even hit the spot. Now running through the woods even more it's getting worse and worse, thus why I stop.

A strange thumping comes from a tree behind me and without consciously aware of my actions I start stalking over there. And yes stalked, not just walked like a normal person. The closer I got to the sound the more out of it I got. Before I knew it a squirrel was standing on a branch above me.

My next move surprises me and suddenly I grab the animal with speed I didn't know I possessed. With a crunch I wring its neck and take my fingernails and nick it to create a small opening. Suddenly I realize what I'm doing and scream in fear of myself. Why the hell would I kill an animal? Backing away from the tree with trepidation my stomach rumbles in protest but I manage to ignore it.

The wind blows around me and where there was nothing a second ago is now a short and fat man with yellow rain boots and round spectacles. It was the man who threatened me in my dream. An involuntary shudder shakes me and I see him smile.

"Hello Matt, quite a pity you didn't finish that. It would have set my plans in motion a bit faster although I must agree with your taste. Small critters are for the unrefined tongue. I prefer the mellifluousness of the young myself."

The thought of him eating children doesn't strike me as odd but it scares me nonetheless.

Before I can ask him anything I hear the crunching of leaves and Dylan runs up to my side. "Why'd you scream Matt?" Before I can answer he looks across from me and sees the strange man, "Um who are you."

"So glad you asked Dylan Williams so of Martha and David, boyfriend of Lindsey Jacobson unlike your friend here you seem to have some manners. My name is Desmond Tiny although most call me Mr. Tiny or if you're lucky Des."

I think about this for a second. Desmond Tiny…Des Tiny, "Destiny," I whisper and he claps.

"Ah Master Nash you're smarter than even I could foretell. Now Matthew what is it that you know?"

"I prefer Matt."

"Of course, I apologize Matt, although we both know that isn't exactly what you would prefer to be called."

Dylan gives the two of us a weird look and I groan; now I'll have to explain the other parts to him. "You appeared in my dream."

He nods in agreement, "That I did but that insolent Crepsley was not meant to interfere as much as he did." His anger rises and he squeezes the heart shaped pocket watch making the two of our chests hurt. "If I could castigate him for that I would, but of course he is out of my reach. Your friend here I am able to hurt though." He squeezes It again and Dylan drops to the floor and screams in agony.

"Don't you dare hurt anyone I care about," I growl and feel my eyes swirl in fury.

"Apparently the stories about you have been true."

My fists clench in anger and even though it seems pointless to engage in a fight with this godlike creature. Dylan steps in front of me "Leave us alone you bastard."

He clucks his tongue, "Nuh uh Mr. Williams you don't want to mess with one like me who can change anything in a heartbeat. You wouldn't want your family to get hurt now would you? Human lives are much more fragile than you could ever imagine."

Dylan steps forward to hit him and I growl, "Dyl back down." He doesn't listen and this time I feel my eyes erupt in a molten silver color, "I said stand back."

As if I was controlling his mind he steps back and I can tell my eyes are now just red and black and swirling.

The fat man smiles, "It seems my minions were more than correct about your power Matthew. You are much more powerful than anyone could have anticipated."

"You're controlling the purple eyed creatures?"

He laughs, "Of course I am my child, who else would."

"Why?"

"Right," he chuckles. "I almost forgot that you know next to nothing. You don't even know what you truly are."

"A Halfling."

"But what is that?" For this I have no answer.

"Matt maybe we should leave," Dylan says slowly.

I glare at him and my eyes blaze, "Stay where you are and be quiet."

He tries to move and can't. "Maybe this will be harder than I imagined," Mr. Tiny muses. "Are you positive you are on the same side as last time?"

"How would I know? I don't even know what I was on last time. I don't know what a Halfling is and I don't know anything unless maybe you give me some answers."

"Sorry Matthew it's not the time for answers as of yet."

"It doesn't matter anyway I wouldn't pick any side where people kidnap and try to kill me."

"Well," he sighs, "they weren't meant to hurt you. All they were instructed to do was bring you to me but apparently their other true leader told them differently."

I store the information about there being two leaders and finish my earlier statement, "And either way I would never join any side with you on it. I may not remember much but from what I do know from seeing you you're evil, manipulative, and conniving. I would never work with someone like that."

He clucks his tongue again which I figure is something he does a lot, "Well then I bid you farewell for now," he frowns and disappears the same way he came.

I turn towards Dylan who is still frozen and sigh, "You can move and I guess you're right about me having more powers."

His face contorts between a mixture of irritation, confusion, and anger, "Don't you fucking dare control my mind again."

"I'll try but I can't promise anything saying that I don't exactly know how to do it."

"On the bright side you're eyes are green again. But what the hell have you been keeping from me?"

I take a deep breath and tell him the entire story this time including the past lives yet skipping the blood.


	15. Chapter 15

**13. The Tedious Day at Hell High**

Walking into school on Monday felt, well for the lack of a better word stupid. I just had a tussle with a guy who I'm pretty sure controls destiny and now I have to go and learn algebra? What has the world come to?

Sam wasn't on the bus and I find all of my friends standing in front of the school fountain except for Dylan who isn't anywhere to be seen. Everyone still backs away in fear. Not much, such a small amount that it probably was done subconsciously. A growl threatens to erupt and I feel the molten silver lava change my eyes once again. The red and black swirls appear when they gasp, "Can you all just act as if I wasn't some monster."

Their eyes all turn foggy and stare at me, frozen to the point where it's impossible to even blink. That's when Dylan walks up and looks at me funny, "What the hell did you do now?"

"Um," I say sheepishly. "I think I may have used that strange mind control thing again."

"Matt or whoever the hell you are make them normal again! My girlfriend isn't even kissing me good morning."  
"Fine," I groan.

"While you're at it can you like make them look at me as king or something and get the girls to love me."

I don't even say anything to him about that and just snort. With a snap of my fingers they all start to move again and I feel my eyes turn green once again. Anna comes over to me and hugs me. A smile works its way to my lips, this was much better than them being afraid of me. Maybe this day won't be as bad as I originally thought.

Of course I shouldn't have thought that because as soon as I walk into bio everything turns to crap. Ms. Tall looks at me and her eyes widen when she notices me staring at Madame Octa deep in conversation. I guess she knows more about what's currently going on than I do. I should ask her about that destiny guy.

I'm partners with Madison again during today's lab. This time we're staring under microscopes and are labeling cells. Seriously what do we actually need to know about cell organelles? And now I'm pretty sure that those aren't going to help me save the world.

Thankfully Madison is fairly decent at science so she does the majority of the work. Well the class did start off well but apparently the universe has a sense of humor because the second set of cells was making my stomach turn in knots. Madison told me what it was but I was too out of it to even take notice of what the hell she said. Ms. Tall gave me a drink and told me I was dehydrated and to keep it with me at all times. I did as she told and to my relief it did make me feel better.

The prospect of gym is terrifying though. What happens if I hurt more people? Today it was raining so instead of football we went inside to play basketball. And Dylan did seem to be right that I was now decent at it. Hell I was beast at it. Or I was doing great until Lindsay's brother tripped me. My reflexes were amazing though so I didn't fall. Instead I was just angry and my temper even scared me right now.

As the game restarted I dribble around him and feign right so he falls down and then "lose my balance" and fall so the ball rolls onto his face. To my relief it was realistic and everyone believes my story except for Brian. During his foul shots, which he makes, he gives me the birdie. I hiss and punch him in the face.

That little stunt lands me in the principal office. She gives me a lecture about behaving myself and how this act should get me suspended. But since she likes me and my record is more than perfect she just gives me a warning and an afterschool detention.

A big part of me was tempted to use my newfound ability and make her just forget it and make it so I don't even get in trouble. But the bigger part of me realizes how horrible that sounds. The ever clichéd line with great power comes great responsibility crosses my mind and I figure that applies to me now. Using it for dumb stuff like getting out of a detention that I deserve would fall under the category of abuse and I have a panic attack from the thought alone.

I still make it to history on time, much to my dismay. For some reason even though I love history and it actually seems as if it may be useful it seems unimportant. Part of me feels that this is the wrong type of history, maybe I should be more focused on my history. To make matters worse we're working on review today and Dylan is my partner.

Dylan is a bad partner to begin with and now all he's doing is being an ass with his questions. "So what was it really like during the civil war?"

"Why would I know?"

"Duh, you've lived before."

"I barely remember anything and from the impression I'm getting I didn't live during the civil war."

"Which war was it then? You mentioned the war of the scars before is that it?"

I shoot him a look and hear him shudder, my eyes must have changed. With a shake of my head they return to normal, "Um I don't know but that sounds to be really familiar."

"I know history isn't my best subject but that doesn't sound like a nickname for one we've learned."

"Seriously I have no clue! All I know is that it was about these Halfling things and that Mr. Tiny guy played a big role in it," I turn back to our work. "I think the answers A."

"You're the boss Adam," he chuckles.

"Adam?"

"Well you look like an Adam and your name wasn't always Matt."

He's really pissing me off now and he knows it too. I make sure the teacher isn't looking before hitting him on the head. Now he's mad and hits me back. Only the teacher notices him doing it and gives him detention. I laugh at him and start my work again. Dylan just scowls at me and I smirk at him.

We walk to lunch and sit down. I sit down next to Anna and put my arm around her, she doesn't move away and I'm glad that I did abuse my powers a little this morning and make them treat me normal again, much better than beforehand when I could barely be in the same building as them.

"So Bob tell them what you did to me today in class," Dylan grunts.

"Bob?" Sam snorts. "Why the hell are you calling him that?"

"Yeah I preferred Adam to that."

"Adam?"

"Yeah his name doesn't really fit him so I'm guessing what his name should be."

Maybe trusting him wasn't a good idea. I glare at him again and even with my normal eyes I know I'm scaring him. "What he was getting at was that we both earned detentions today."

"You're lucky you didn't get expelled with that act you pulled in gym. Brian's face looks terrible."

Lindsay looks at me in panic, "What did you do to my brother."  
"I may or may have not punched him in the face."

She reaches over to me and smacks my arm, "Nobody beats up my brother but me."

That doesn't surprise me and I just roll my eyes and mumble an apology. Lindsay looks pleased by this and smiles. I suppress the urge to come up with a witty retort. Instead I just take a bite of my onions and watch Sam wrinkle his nose at me. From across the way I see Bill pick up an orange and squish it as if it was my face.

I gulp, I forgot about him. My friends see where my line of sight is and Sam chuckles, "You still say you're going to fight him."

"I don't really have a choice if he starts it."

"Just try to get out of it," Anna pleads.

"How? Anna trust me I can handle this."

"I don't know, he did put you in a coma a few weeks ago."

"Only after I beat him," I remind them. "Multiple times."

"Still you're being stupid about it," Lindsay tells me.

"Trust me babe he can handle it," Dylan snorts.

"I agree, sort of," Sam says. "I have full faith in you man but not as much as Dyl here has."

Of course you don't Sam; you don't have the same knowledge about me that Dylan does. I'm still pretty positive that he isn't human and is working with Mr. Tiny but I'm not positive. Wait why are they positive that we're going to fight, "Why are you guys convinced that he's going to attack me?"

"Um remember the other morning."

I remember him coming up to me but I don't remember him promising a fight. Again that was the morning where I don't remember the majority of it so who knows, "Oh right," I frown. "So when's the first match of the season?"

I am glad that the two start discussing the upcoming season and get off the subject of well me. Lindsay and Anna don't seem too interested in the turn the conversation took and start their own about some gossip from their cheer gym. So even though I feel a bit left out I'm also kind of glad that I have the chance to be quiet. Usually my friends make school worthwhile, but recently they've been annoying me.

It's not them, I mean it is, but more than that it's just that my temper's been insane lately. Any jackass or annoying thing they do is pushing me over the edge. And listening tp them right now talk about some random everyday stuff makes me depressed. Right now more than before I feel out of it… I don't belong here anymore. My life has taken a turn that sets me apart from everyone else and I kind of hate it.

Lunch ends quickly and the rest of the day is still left to drag on and on. A few times during the afternoon I get this weird tingling on the back of my neck, the type of feeling I get when someone's watching me. But I don't know who would be watching me. Well that's not exactly true. There are a lot of people who could be watching me. I just don't know which one of those it is.

Or maybe I'm just being paranoid. That's always a possibility.

As school ends Dyl and me walk over to the office and are directed to the detention room. For detention our school has one teacher a day hold all of the students. Just my luck today is with Ms. Tall with whom I still have not had a conversation with since our Q&A session the other day. And to add to my exasperation at the situation the one time I may be forced to talk to her Dylan has to be with me.

He seems more excited than he should for detention though, probably due to the concept of talking to her about all of this. I personally hope he doesn't mention anything, but I'm positive that my friend will not be able to keep his mouth shut.

Then on top of that there are only two people in detention today…us.

"Matt, Dylan," Ms. Tall nods and has us sit before looking straight at me. "What's the chance that the onetime you get detention you get me and it's not crowded at all?"

Against my better judgment I crack a smile, "I don't know seems to be destiny to me."

She frowns at my wording, "Please tell me that doesn't mean what I think it does?"  
Of course by now Dylan is bursting with the urge to speak, "Of course it does, he came and threatened us and had this insane watch thing and everything."

I growl, "I told you to not say anything. And Ms. Tall why the hell didn't you warn me more than you did. Right after you talked to me I was almost killed. Have anything else you want to keep from me?" My eyes blaze and swirl, I can tell because I hear her scream a bit, a sound that is very alarming.

"Maybe you should fill me in on what's happened recently."

"Only if you promise to tell me who this Desmond Tiny guy is."

"That's a little complicated," she laughs dryly. I fight the urge to scream and I feel my eyes darken as my anger causes a glass beaker to explode. After that she nods and I go into the story of what has happened, starting with the attack in the woods and ending with the feeling of being watched.

"He forgot the part where he's been remembering stuff from before," Dylan adds.

"She already knew that," I mumble.

"This is bad," she shakes her head. "I had no idea he was back as well."

"Who?" Dylan and I ask together.

She grimaces, "The other leader of what you describe as purple skinned and red eyed."

"I know him," I state.

"Yes," Ms. Tall nods. "Saying that you two had history in your past life would be an understatement. I'm surprised my Father even allowed him to be on the same side as him."

"Father?"

"Desmond Tiny is my father, but don't let that cloud your judgment of anything. We despise each other. He allowed my twin brother, his own son, to die. He controls everything, thus the name. And more than anything he hates humans and wants to create chaos."

"Is he a Halfling too?" Dylan asks.

"No, he is everything and he is nothing. There is no name for what he or I are. Just know to stay away from him. From what you've told me he knows the extent of your current abilities. If the leader of the other side isn't anywhere near you he will try to get you. And if what my brother has said he is allowed to interfere this time."

"I thought he was dead?"

"He is, you dreamt about him Matt and told me about it."

Ah when I lost my memory of the morning. "So from the way you worded this I'm going to develop more powers?"

She nods, "Many from the part of the future I can see."

"Can you tell me if I'm going to win the tournament this weekend?" Dylan asks.

"No," she smiles. "If I do there are monsters that will come out and destroy the world. There are rules that the universe makes us follow. I'd get more into it, but it isn't safe to."

"And if the other things have this leader does that mean Matt will have an army?"

"Yes, but you're not ready yet. And that's all I can answer more than last time. Don't bother asking what you are because I can't tell you."

I figure this and just nod, at this point I don't know if I could take any more information without my head exploding. "Wait can you tell us what Matt's name was?" Dylan asks. "Right now I'm convinced it was Melvin."

"Bob was better," I snort.

"No I cannot," she says apologetically. "But Matt it may be a good idea for you to see me after class everyday so we can train a bit. I'm sure Dylan did a fine job but there's a lot he will not be able to help with."

"You've done something similar to this before haven't you? Taught me about dreams I believe."

"Yes I did. And Dylan watch your back as well. Now that he has your scent nothing will be easier, it will just get harder."

We nod and she dismisses us. Dylan texts his sister who's on a break from college and thankfully she comes and gets us. After all the stuff going on neither of us feel comfortable walking through the woods or even on the street.

Halfway to my house there's this horrid light. If you get stuck at it you have to wait a good five minutes for it to change. And just our luck, we get stuck at it.

A blur of movement runs around the car and I hold my breath too afraid to see what it is. Neither of the Williams can see it so I figure it has to be one of the things following me. I gulp, this isn't going to end well.

The figure stops right in front of our car and Dyl and his sister scream. I'm silent, no point in screaming and showing this guy he was actually scary. Upon a closer look I notice that he has V's shaved above his ears. This seems significant and I don't know exactly why. He's pointing a gun at us and the other two passenger's scream even more.

"Michelle slam on it!" I yell at her and she does as I say, effectively running over the guy. We speed to my house and she's hyperventilating. I mean it makes sense saying that she did just run over a person. Dylan too is freaking out, not as much, but he definitely is.

Acting on instinct I touch her head and she goes slack for a moment. Dylan stares at me and I assure him it's okay even though I don't know why. A moment later she wakes up as if nothing happened before and I thank her for the ride.

I pass my sister watching tv and smile at her innocence. She comes over to me and frowns, "Why do you look so scared?"

I laugh, there's no way I could explain that without sounding insane, "That's a little hard to explain."

She shrugs as if it wasn't that big of a deal either way. I go upstairs to do my homework before dinner's ready. We're having spaghetti tonight and I'm actually dreading it. Mom's spaghetti is to die for, but I don't know it just doesn't sound too good at the moment.

But when it's on my plate it does smell good, especially with the bottle of soda or whatever that Ms. Tall sent me home with. She figured based on what's going on that I'd need it and even though I'm not sure what it is I'm grateful.

"So how was school today Matt? You've been distant lately."

Understatement much, " It's good, sorry about not being around lately."

"Why would we care?" Dad asks. "You have a girlfriend of course you aren't home."

I blush at this and Mom lights up, "Oh my gosh we haven't had dinner with her yet!"

"Uh Mom it's just Anna you've known her for years."

"Yeah but it's different now. Why don't you invite her to dinner this weekend?'

"On Friday," Anna insists. "I want her to see my play."

She was the lead so I figured that was a decent request, "Sure I'll text her later."

"Oh and don't make plans Saturday either," Dad tells me. "Anna has another show then and the rest of the clan is coming in."

No, not them, "Please don't make me spend the day with Lily and Alice." Lily and Alice are my twin cousins and I hate spending time with them. They kind of drive me crazy.

"Lily's bringing her new boyfriend so it may not be so bad," Mom says feeling bad for me.

Dad's a bit mad though, "Don't talk about your family that badly. And they might have grown up."

I doubt this but just keep my mouth shut and take a bite of garlic bread to stop me from pointing out that the two of them will never grow up. Maybe my destiny will save me from them even though the thought of the man in boots saving me from anything makes me laugh.


	16. Chapter 16

**The Sun Better Come out Soon**

The rest of the week felt incredibly long and saying Friday was the crappiest day for me would be an understatement. Well it wasn't the day itself that sucked instead it was the prospect of my family coming in for a visit. I really didn't like them one bit. My aunt and uncle were eccentric to say the least. They were very granola and tree hugging like. And on top of that they had a very strange parenting style and basically let my cousins just do whatever. Besides that they were pretty cool though, very chill and funny.

My cousins on the other hand were just flat out weird. They were also freshman but acted like they were younger than Sarah and she was in Elementary school! Alice was obsessed with unicorns and carried a backpack with them on it everywhere she went. Lilly was equally as strange but instead of mythical creatures with horns she was fanatical about vampires to the point that sometimes she walked around with plastic fangs. She was what some would call a twi-hard, well that's what Sarah said, but crazier. I swear she imagined that some handsome vampire would steal her away and make her a princess and Alice imagined that she would become a horse with a horn and wings.

Seriously it was so bad even Sarah thought they were bad and she was a little kid. But at least all she was obsessed with was well normal 9 year old stuff.

So basically all day I was just worried about them coming in later tonight and having to chauffer my cousins around for the weekend. My friends didn't seem to be any help either. All they did was laugh at me and wish me good luck. And as bad as it was that did make me lose a little bit of control, my ire was growing and I felt my willpower to be, human I guess slipping.

Ms. Tall had me come in during my last class on Friday for our first session though since I wasn't able to come after school. We spent the entire time working on me being able to control my eyes and manage some sense of normality in my actions. And even though we worked for less than an hour it did manage to help a little bit.

Walking out of school I couldn't be happier that I was out of that hell hole. The week I had was so horrible. Every movement I saw made me jump in fear and I just needed a break. And just as Sarah wanted all of my friends were coming to see her portray Annie tonight. Anna was coming out to dinner with us and then we were going to head to the play where everyone would be waiting.

Surprisingly they all agreed to come without any protest. Apparently they all think that my sister was the cutest thing they had ever seen and couldn't wait to see her dance and sing. Me, I didn't care too much but whatever she was my only sister and recently I've been getting a sense that I shouldn't take my family for granted. I think in my past life something traumatic happened that made me leave them or my sister had a hard life. Either way I got the sense that every minute I spent with them was precious and if that included seeing a bad production then so be it.

Anna's next to me with her hand in mine and we walk to the bus together. Ever since the attacks I can't stand to walk, it freaks me out so I've been taking the bus. I can't stand it though. I just can't wait until I get my license. Although now that I think about it I cannot remember ever driving a car, not that I remember too much but I feel as if I've never driven. Did I live that long ago?  
We enter the house and we're the only ones here, thank god considering that I know my Mom's going to go insane since she's my girlfriend. Even though that doesn't make sense at all since I've known Anna since we could basically walk and we're on first name basis with each other's parents.

After we go and get a snack, cold pizza for the win, we walk down to the basement to play video games. I love that about Anna, she plays video games and stuff with me. We'll also play sports and stuff in the backyard and just whatever.

Once we get bored of video games Mom comes home with Sarah in tow and Dad comes soon after. I'm surprised that Mom tells me we're allowed in my room. She's so into doing this dating thing right yet she trusts us apparently. Not that we do anything besides kiss a little bit anyway and it wasn't anything too intense. I mean all of our clothes stayed on. We've known each other for so long that it's probably going to take a little while to get completely out of the friendzone.

At about six we leave the house and end up going to some random Italian place. I wasn't really in the mood for Italian but Sarah loved it so whatever. I just got some pasta that wasn't great but wasn't bad either. Anna and I weren't getting questioned too much at least. Really everything was just turning out like any other dinner when Anna would join us.

The only weird thing going on during dinner was that strange sense of being watched. And it was even worse than during school. The best I could explain it was that I felt more than one pair of eyes on me. Like I literally felt fingers prodding my skin and making me feel ice wash over me. All in all it was not a pleasant experience. Not only did it feel extremely weird but it also made me freak out that there were probably those creepers working for Mr. Tiny stalking me.

Even stranger was that I seem to recognize the people watching me even though I didn't know who was watching me. Kind of like there were different impressions the ice made and I could recognize the difference but I can't be sure.

We leave the restaurant and make our way to the high school. The elementary school didn't have a large enough area for the show so we were stuck back at the place I've been stuck at for too many hours a week. Plus I'd have to be here tomorrow too, just great!

My friends all made it at least and even though these things weren't human it was kind of like I had back up if something happened. Not that I planned on anything happening but if this feeling didn't go away then it seemed bound to happen. Well that and the fact that I could never get a break from this violence and the attacks anymore.

Intermission comes and I walk out to the hall to go and buy some candy. My taste buds seemed to have changed quite a bit in the last few weeks but I still have insane chocolate and sugar cravings. I make a face at the stand; they didn't have anything that I really liked so I settle for a bag of popcorn for Anna who doesn't like candy and a pack of Reese's for me. I guess we technically were on a date so it _is_ the nice thing to do and I guess I'm kind of a gentleman. Well I open the door and pull her chair out and stuff if that counts.

She smiles at me and we walk to our seats where Dylan and Sam are arguing over if the theater coordinator of the school was attractive or not. Personally she wasn't my type of girl. Just out of college it was obvious that this was just a job until she could actually make a start of her own career. Her whole image seemed so 'I'm too good for what I'm doing' and I hated people who thought they were better than everyone else. Hell I was a prince, kind of, and the most popular guy in my grade, arguably, and I was still modest and didn't have an ego the size of Texas! Plus her hair was bleach blonde and her boobs were fake and I didn't like that type of thing.

The show resumes and after about five minutes I start to shiver and I feel my skin begin to crawl. I tap Dylan on the shoulder and gesture for the door. He frowns at me but follows me anyway. We slowly work our way out of the auditorium and make our way to the bathroom where they'll be some privacy.

"Why'd we leave? You're sister's actually pretty good."

"Something's coming," I tell him ominously.

He shudders, "What do you mean."

"I mean as in there's people watching us and I get the feeling they're going to attack any minute now."

"Then why drag me into it?"

"Because I might need backup and you're the only one who knows the truth," I yell at him. Seriously why does that matter? I need his help and that's all that matters right now saying that I may be killed.

"Who is it?"  
"I have no clue," I admit sheepishly. "But I have a bad feeling."

Apparently I'm psychic now too or I just have really bad timing because at that moment the door slams into the wall and a very angry looking Bill walks in with a look of determination on his face.

"Leave me the hell alone," I growl and I fell my eyes change.

"And I thought my eyes were turning strange," he laughs and I notice his eyes have a more reddish tint than before.

"You're like me," I state.

He snorts, "We're so much better than you. My race is so superior to yours that how dare you even compare us."

I have no clue what he says but I don't really care at the moment. My heart's racing and I've pretty much passed the control threshold by now and am literally on the verge of destroying him. "I said to leave me the hell alone," I growl and water spurts out of the sink and the toilets, soaking Bill but not Dyl and I.

He starts to charge me and I manage to get out of the way and he runs into the wall. I urge Dylan to move and he does. We run back to the auditorium and sit back down out of breath to finish the rest of the play.

**Sorry this chapter sucks and I hate it but I wanted a filler chapter. The next chapter will be really long and I'll be introducing about three more characters. **


	17. Chapter 17

**Saved by An Anomaly**

I'm woken up Saturday morning by laughter and squeals. Damn it my family must be here. Couldn't they have come later since all I want is to sleep? Last night I did not sleep well, my dreams were full of a lake of dead people and exploding toilets which made for a terrible nightmare. And now in my tired state I was going to have to play nice, my definition of fun.

Emphasis on the sarcasm there.

Figuring I still smelled of toilet water I decide it would be a good idea to go and take a quick shower. Technically the water didn't actually touch me, but it was an excuse to postpone seeing my lovely cousins. Still, I have no clue how the hell I managed to make all the water explode onto Bill. Ms. Tall _did_ say I was going to evolve more powers but I'm not sure exactly what I did or how I did it. My best guess was that either I have telekinesis and somehow made the stuff happen or I can control water.

Or it was all my imagination but that's unlikely considering that Dylan was standing right there. Apparently I'm just that much more of a freaky Halfling now, which I still don't know what that is.

"Matthew Sean Nash get your sleepy butt down here!" Mom shouts from the kitchen, it has the biggest echo thus how I know. And must she use my whole name?

"Coming Mom I'm just getting dressed," I call back and painstakingly brush my hair and teeth to kill even more time before throwing on a pair of jeans and a Roosevelt Football tee-shirt. It was probably my favorite shirt. The front of it said Roosevelt Football Swag and the back of it said quarterbacks get it done best. Mom had a cow when I first brought it home but I convinced her it wasn't sexual even though it was. Dad just found it to be hilarious.

Finally dressed I rush down the stairs before my parents can get madder at me and almost run into my sister on the way down the stairs. Apparently she's taking her time to get downstairs too. I'm still laughing at that as I enter the kitchen and am immediately pulled into a huge hug.

"Hi Aunt Victoria," I smile as she releases me. "Hi Uncle Aidan."

"Oh my gosh you've grown so much Matt," my aunt gushes and ruffles my hair. I flip it to get it back how it was. "You must be six feet now!"

"Not quite," I laugh.

"Your rents still giving you too much artificial shit then?" Uncle Aidan shakes his head reprimanding."

I snort, "Not sure but I'm due for a growth spurt any day now with how I eat."

"Good," he nods.

"You forgot to hug me," Alice whines and stomps her foot.

Oh Alice, "How could I ever forget you Alice? Is that a new shirt?"

She smiles and looks down at her sparkly purple shirt, "You noticed! I'm wearing new shoes too. They're all the rage in my unicorn lover group."

I fight the urge to roll my eyes and laugh as I notice her sparkly rainbow high-tops with unicorns on the outside. "They're nice. Where's Lilly?"

"She's in the backyard with her boyfriend."

"I forgot she brought her new boyfriend. Is he spending the day with us too?"

My parents catch my tone and Dad chuckles at my obvious enthusiasm whereas Mom shoots me a look that screams play nice. Aunt Victoria and Uncle Aidan don't catch it however and just nod in answer of my question. Hopefully Lilly's boyfriend isn't too much like her and saves me from a horrible day. My douche friends still were refusing to spend the day with me.

For about an hour the seven of us are just hanging in the kitchen and eating the chocolate chip pancakes Sarah made. And for a little girl she was a surprisingly decent cook. Lilly is still nowhere to be seen and I'm okay with that. It's hard enough just dealing with Alice and my aunt and uncle. The three of them don't even eat the food Sarah cooks and eat the stuff they brought! Apparently they weren't made of natural and organic ingredients so were not meant to be made or ingested.

By the end of three hours I am seriously ready to kill my visiting family. And to make matters worse this is only the beginning. I'm going to have to be stuck with them for the entire weekend. Seriously I'd much rather be fighting off monsters than deal with them. But nope I obviously picked the sort straw in life.

At about noon after we decide we've had enough TV, well aunt and uncle have forbid their children from watching more than a half an hour and they aren't allowed to play video games. So now I'm stuck doing my job for the weekend and taking them around town. My aunt and uncle don't care where the twins are so it's totally up to me as long as I follow the rules I was given and contact Mom and Dad every so often so they know I'm alive. Usually I hate having to check in with them since nothing ever happens here, but given the circumstances I'm fine letting them know that I am alive and well.

Alice and me head to the backyard where I find my cousin in a vomit inducing situation. She's literally sitting on our slide with her tongue in the guy's ear and he's biting her neck. I think if it wasn't for the ridiculous way they looked with their dark colors and Lilly's insane new haircut I would have.

"Hey Lilly," I wave as an attempt to get her attention.

She looks at me and her sister and blushes, "Oh hey Matthew this is my boyfriend Nathan. Nathan this is my cousin Matthew."

"Actually it's just Matt but Lilly will call me nothing but Matthew."

He grabs Lilly's hand and comes and shakes mine, "Nice to meet you Matt. Nice shirt by the way but you do realize football is a terrible sport."

"It's _my _sport actually Nathan but I'll let this slide. You guys want to go eat?"

I receive three yeses and sigh in relief that at least getting some food wasn't going to be an issue. Since my breakfast was thrown away after a few bites and deemed unacceptable, Aunt Victoria's ruling, I barely ate and am literally about to faint from hunger.

They don't mind what we eat and I decide I wanted burgers so we end up in a burger joint in the middle of town. My friend's and I spend so much time here that the owner knows our names. As we walk in I'm tuning out Alice's chatter about how amazing her unicorn convention is going to be and groan with who I saw. Bill is sitting at a booth with some girl I don't know but gives me the creeps and I'm wishing that I picked somewhere else to go.

"Matt," he growls when he sees me.

"Bill," I nod. "Still a bit wet I see."

"I'll get you back," he vows and looks at the girl across from him. "This is Brianne you two will know one another very well I believe."

"I look forward to it," she gushes and her voice is like nails on a chalkboard. "Bill's told me all about you and I know that once we well let's just say get acquainted that my I'll call him our other friend won't be disappointed. Hell he'll be pleased with us more than anyone else for meeting such a nice boy."

I don't reply and just walk over to my usual booth. "What was that about?" Lilly asks pointing towards that jerk.

"Just some jackass from school."

"Seemed more than that," Nathan muses.

"We don't really like each other," I explain.

"You know peace is really the right path," Alice interjects.

"She's right," Lilly sings. "I mean if vampires get along with humans than so can humans and humans."

I hear Bill's dry laugh and he's looking at us. Knowing how my senses have improved it's no surprise that he to can heat our conversation. "So tell me about yourself Nathan."  
"Well Lilly and I met in English and found we both shared the same passions. We've been inseparable since then."

"So you like vampires too," I state.

Lilly's face turns red, "It's more than that Matthew it's a love. One day Nathan and I will live forever as vampires in the forest and be able to be eternal lovers."

I choke on my soda and it goes through my nose as I laugh, "Keep believing that Lilly but saying vampires exist is like saying unicorns exist."

"They do!" Alice exclaims.

"I know," I lie, "it's an expression. What I mean is that saying vampires exist is like saying the wolf-man exists."

This pleases her but Lilly and Nathan are still fuming, "Well if you're lucky enough to ever be turned which you never will then you'd die anyway since football isn't an important skill for the immortals."

By this point I just let the conversation end and change the subject to something the three of them can ramble about for the remainder of lunch. I look over and see Bill and Brianne cracking up and shaking their heads at me. I snarl and my eyes change causing them to shut up. Pleased, I feel my eyes change back and just hope my cousins didn't notice.

They're still engrossed in their conversation and therefore don't notice me. That's good, I don't know what I'd do if they saw that. Well I guess I'd just make them forget but I don't like the idea of being in their heads.

The strangest thing about my cousins in my mind is that they're both vegan. So as Nathan and me are eating burgers, a bacon burger cooked medium rare in my case and is still to cooked, they are eating veggie burgers with no bun. It was especially weird in Lilly's case since she was obsessed with becoming a vampire. How does a vegan drink blood?

A memory of a guy with a hook for a hand pops into my head and I shake it away. Maybe my cousins were right about vampires and unicorns. If I was a nonhuman being from the past myself and Destiny had a vendetta against me than I guess it was possible.

Scratch that vampires maybe but definitely not unicorns. Dragons I could believe in more than unicorns too. Actually that makes my head hurt as if a memory is trying to come through and cannot. Weird…

After lunch we end up at the mall and split up. I was glad to get rid of Lilly and her weirdo of a boyfriend but I was now stuck alone with Alice. Since we were here I need to go buy Lindsay a birthday present saying her birthday is coming up. Mine is too actually, we have the same birthday. But as we walk towards this boutique where she buys the majority of her cheer stuff, I plan on buying her these new shoes she wanted, Alice pulls me over to some little kid store.

"What are we doing?"  
"Patrice the Panda is doing pictures and I need one," she begs.

"Seriously," I groan. "We can't walk over there."  
"Come on Matt we have to."

"And what get a picture snapped and put on facebook for the world to see?" I ask incredulously.

"Of course," she squeals. "My friends have to know that I'm telling the truth and actually saw her. I missed her when she was near us because of school so please please please please please."

Her pleases don't stop and I start to fume. My eyes change and I'm about to tell her what to do with herself when I stop and take a calming breath. Control, it's all about control. "Fine but make it quick."

"Yay," she cheers and grabs my hand and rushes over to the store.

It's us and about a hundred kids under than six in line to see a lame ass chick dressed as a giant cartoon panda. I mean come on I have way better things to do with my time than this, say figure out how to save the world or eat a bunch of junk food.

But nope I spend the next two hours in line with Alice listening to little kids yell and bitch and cheer and scream in their shrill voices. Why didn't I take Sarah with me like I wanted? Oh right she got out of it because of being the star and all and my friend's wouldn't bother being with me. At the front of the line Alice rushes forward and even in the suit I can tell the Panda is weirded out by a fourteen year old who seems more enthusiastic than a five year old.

By the time we're out of the store we go and make our way to the food court to meet Lilly and Nathan I've run out of time to get done with the stuff I actually came here to do. And on top of that I'm about to faint by the time we sit down. Even though I wanted to sit down Alice made me go buy her a wheatgrass smoothie. With it in hand we sit down with my other cousin.

"I saw Patrice the Panda," she gushes.

"We got our hair done," Lilly smiles through the plastic fangs she just put in.

I look at them, "It doesn't look different."

"You wouldn't be able to see it necessarily," Nathan tells me through matching fangs. "Only those who are worthy or know what they're looking for will be able to see it."

This time I look more carefully and my eyes widen when I see it, "V's? Why the hell would you get a v buzzed into your heads?"

"Us and our posse have been meaning to do it for a while now but today was the first chance we got."

"It's our first step in becoming true creatures of the night."

It's the same v as I saw in the person who ran out in front of the car and it makes me shudder. Just as before I know it means something but I'm not positive what. All I know is that now more than ever I need to stay away from them. A tingle runs up my spine and I turn around at the familiar but nonthreatening nudge and smile when I see Ms. Tall. I wave her over.

"Hi Ms. Tall," I yawn. "Sorry I'm tired."

She hands me a bottle of soda, "Here you forgot your energy drinks at home I'm guessing."

"Energy drinks are bad for you," Alice chirps.

"Actually they're all natural, this is my biology teacher who's been helping me get over my um new ailment."

"You're sick."

"Just intense allergies. Anyway Ms. Tall these are my cousins Alice and Lilly and Lilly's boyfriend Nathan."

I hear a quiet gasp come from her, but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who can hear it. "Pleasure, I have to go Matt. I'll see you in class on Monday morning."

We all bid her farewell and as she walks away I swear that in my head I hear her tell me to stay away from the ones with a v. She didn't need to actually tell me, I was anyway but whatever.

"Matthew what is that drink. It looks like blood?"

I scoff, "What are you saying? It's just an energy drink. You may be obsessed with vampires but I prefer to live in the land of the living."

My tone had finality to the conversation and the three others get quiet. Apparently my strange control over people works on everyone, not the mind control I knew that but the way people follow my every words. With that we exit the mall and make our way back to the house. I change into something more appropriate for dinner before we leave meaning khakis and a polo that brings out the green in my eyes even more.

On the way to the restaurant Sarah gives us a preview of her singing, well not a preview for those of us who saw it last night. Upon arriving at the restaurant I make sure to stick close to Sarah, Mom, and Dad. There was no way I was going to stay with the strangeness of the rest of my family if I didn't need to.

Sarah leans over to me and whispers in my ear, "Why are they dressed like that?"

I shrug and laugh a little. Victoria and Aidan had changed into clothes straight out of the seventies. If it was possible Alice had put even more sparkles on. And Nathan and Lilly still had their fangs on and put on matching capes.

The waiter comes over and wrinkles her nose at the extended family. I order steak tar tar and everyone stares at me just as at my date a few weeks ago. Still I don't understand why though it was really just food. Through the entire dinner I just sit there and tune out everyone.

Dinner goes pretty quickly and so does the play. Once again Sarah does fantastic and she gets a standing ovation. I'm really proud of her and smile at the thought of having such a talented little sister. When she comes running over to us I hand her a big bouquet of flowers and I get a hug in return.

Back at home I'm stuck in my room all night. I am too scared to even go downstairs and get into another conversation with Alice or Lilly. At about midnight my chocolate craving gets to be too much and I risk going downstairs. I see Lilly and Nathan sitting in the kitchen with a guy that I don't know. Instinct takes over and I hide at the top of the stairs, trying to listen to their conversation.

"I'm in need of your service," the mystery guy says and something about him gives me a pang of guilt and scares me at the same time.

"Anything," Nathan vows. "We live to serve you and your partner."

"Good," he smiles. "I'm looking for a boy who you know very well. My partner wants him captured but I need him dead. It's your job to get him to me."

"Um my Lord," Lilly stutters. "Um well our other Lord was going to give us what we wanted after we manage to get him to him. Will you still give us what we want?"

"Don't you dare talk to me like that," he growls. "You will still have what you want. It is my mark you bear after all. Just do this one thing."

"What boy must we kill," Nathan asks.

"Not kill, bring him to me and I must be the one to kill him. His name is Matt Nash."  
Lilly gulps, "As in my cousin Matthew?"

"Exactly." Wait what? Now my own cousin was out for me, what a bitch!

"This is his house," Nathan pronounces. "He's upstairs in his room."

"So this is his new scent," the guy muses. "Interesting it's more similar than I imagined. At the moment I have no more use of the two of you. Actually go bring him downstairs to me."

I don't care about what they say in return. All I know is that I need to get out of here. I run back to my room and jump out the window in order to escape.

To my amazement I land on my feet, maybe I'm half cat since I can jump like Fluffy, but cats hate me so I doubt it. Looking behind me I see a guy about my age with dark spikey hair. He sees me and smirks before chasing me. I yell and start to run to the forest. It's my territory there, not his so I should have home turf advantage. Only as soon as I start running a car also comes towards me with Lilly and Nathan in it. They jump out of the car and Nathan hold me down.

I snarl, "Get off of me."

"This isn't personal Matt, but it's the only way we can get what we want."

I hear the distinctive footsteps of Bill and he hits me on the head as everything goes black.

When I wake up I'm tied to a chair in an abandoned factory, cliché much. My head is killing me and all I want to do is fall back asleep but I won't let that happen. "Where am I?" I groan.

An evil laughter fills my ears, "You're in my hands old friend."

It's the spikey haired guy from before, "But I don't know you?"

"Yes you do," he nods.

"You're like me," I exclaim. "We were best friends before. I've remembered you a few times."

"Good so you remember ruining my life and then killing me."

"What? All I remember is seeing you in a hospital and some other times I cannot exactly make out."

"You don't? Well that just means that I have more time to torture you as it all comes back. Now what shall I start with. Personally I'm a fan of gouging eyes. That was how I made my first kill you see. But if I do that then you'll be dead all too soon."

His eyes turn from white and brown to a scarlet with no pupil and swirling black lines. Kind of like a mix of the guys who captured me in the forest and mine. "What are you?"

He laughs, "Just like you but better. You already know what I want though."

"You're Mr. Tiny's partner?"

"Smarter than before too. Yes I am but unlike him I've always wanted him dead. He's always had a blind spot for you as he's always hated me. Wait I know what I'll do first," his face lights up and he snaps his fingers. "Someone go get his sister."

"You're not going to hurt her this time," I scream as my eyes turn to the silver with swirls. "All of you are stuck where you are."  
They all remain frozen and the guy looks at me appraisingly and growls, "You've always been more powerful than me but for now I am the dominant one. See I'm farther along than you and as long as I get you now you'll be gone before you surpass me."

"Then why aren't you frozen?"

"Not strong enough to control me either," he taunts. "Now I'm going to break every bone in your body."

This time he stalks over to me and breaks every finger slowly and painfully. I bite my tongue to avoid screaming even though that's all I want to do. When he finishes that he unties me, "Now let's fight."

Before I can understand what's going on he pushes me down. As he gets closer I jump up and manage to land a blow in between his legs that makes him grab himself and squeal. I start to run away before he can get up. But even though I get away he manages to get up and appear in front of me. "How'd you do that? You were over there?"  
"Faster than I look," he chuckles. "Now prepare to die."

As he takes his hand with sharp nails, sharper than mine, he gets ready to slash my neck but somehow it never hits me. Instead a force field type thing is keeping his hand away from me. Only I feel it getting thinner and thinner and as I start to feel a nail on my neck the guy ends up away from me and a hand helps me up.

The new mystery guy puts me onto his back and the next thing I know I'm standing in my room with the really small guy and the guy with the green hair.

"Who are you two? I-I-I remember you."

"I guess he has to know now," the green haired guy sighs.

The small dude takes off his mask and speaks, "Finally, Matt I'm Harkat Mulds and this is Vancha March."


	18. Chapter 18

**Rescue Mission**

"I know you don't I?"I ask them.

"You do," Harkat smiles and reveals a row of horrendous sharp teeth. What the hell is he? A picture of another thing like him comes to mind yet this one doesn't have a mask or a tongue and is sitting on a roof watching the sun.

"Matt," I hear my Mom call from her room. "Be quiet and go to sleep already."

"Yes Mom," I call back and turn to the two guests. "You guys cannot be here now, I'm going to get in trouble."

"We need to talk," Vancha says.

"I know, but my parents are too close to us here. Can we meet later today?"

"That might not be a good idea," Vancha laughs dryly. "The sun and I don't mix well as you can see from the redness of my skin. Does tonight work?"

"Sure, um where are you two staying?"

"The abandoned church," they say together.

"Okay I'll meet you there. Um what do I do about the fact that my cousin wants me dead and the lord guy knows where I live?"

Vancha runs a hand through his greasy green hair and frowns, "You're fine for now but it may be best if you stay here Harkat."

"Okay," he agrees quickly. I get the feeling we were pretty close.

"But don't you dare say anything to him without me here," he warns.

Harkat snots, well I think it was a snort. "Vancha you may be prince but since when have I listened to you?"

"True," he chuckles. "But you know you have to in this case. I have to go all this human technology is driving me barmy but I look forward to seeing you tonight Master Nash."

I don't get the chance to say goodbye to the strange guy for he jumps out the window and is gone. Turning to Harkat I frown, "Um I can go and bring out the sleeping bag if you want?"

"It's okay I don't sleep much. I can easily go a night without it. If I," pause for breath, "am awake it is much easier to watch over you."

"No offense but can you really protect me against those things?"

"I'm stronger than I look. I've saved your sorry ass more times that I can count."

Oh great so he thinks I'm this mysterious guy of my past. "Sorry to say but I'm not that guy, whoever the hell I was. I'm just Matt so don't expect so much."

"That's where you're wrong Matt. You are everything he was and more. Even your mannerisms are the same." He thinks for a second. "You like pickled onions right?"

"How'd you know?"

"You used to love them. Your favorite football team is the Patriots even though you liv e nowhere near there. You hate the color green and have an obsession with spiders."

"That's a bit creepy," I admit. "But just because I like the same things doesn't mean I'm brave like this guy sounds."

"He's you and you're him. I thought Evanna had this conversation with you?"

"Evanna? Oh you mean Ms. Tall."

"if that's what she's going by these days then yes."  
"Whatever I have to sleep u goodnight Harkat."

"Goodnight Matt."

After lying in bed for a minute something occurs to me, "Harkat if you go to sleep try not to wake me up with your dreams I can't deal with that right now."

I don't know exactly where that came from but after that I do drift into a deep sleep. Actually a lot better of a sleep that I've had in weeks. Something about having this strange small creepy thing watch over me surprisingly makes me feel a lot better. Strange, but it almost feels familiar and I know he has my back.

By the time I wake up in the morning he's still sitting at my desk staring at me. And even though last night I was cool with it, this morning seems different and I go and attack him for no reason. As a letter opener begins to hit his neck I back away and shake my head.

Instead of getting mad he just laughs at me. Wow, if I did that to Dylan or Sam they would freak, but apparently not Harkat. That's actually not a bad thing though. I leave him where he is after a quick apology to go and shower.

Just as I did yesterday, I take my time before going downstairs. Apparently my temporary roommate is okay with staying in my room alone. Although I get the feeling no matter where I go he's going to be near to make sure I'm okay.

The mood in the kitchen is so somber and tense it's as if a knife could cut through it. And on top of that Aunt Victoria was cooking so there goes my breakfast. That wasn't strange though, she was whistling a jolly tune as if nothing was wrong. My immediate family on the other hand had frowns and worry lines of their faces.

Not wanting to eat my aunt's concoction I reach into the fridge and grab an apple before sitting on a spinning chair at the island, "What's wrong Mom did somebody die?"

Apparently that was the wrong choice of wording because she gets even sadder and Dad has to answer, "Lily and her boyfriend have gone missing."

"I told you it was no big deal," Uncle Aidan tells us. "Our girls go off all the time and we don't hear from them. It hasn't even been a day and she's off having sex with her boyfriend so it's not a big deal."

Sarah chokes on her OJ and blushes. Seriously must they talk like that in front of a nine year old! "Wouldn't she have called?" Mom asks. "And how are you okay with your little girl um being with a guy like that. If I heard Matt doing anything of the sort…"  
Personally I was glad she didn't finish the thought, her tone was scary enough without a visual of her cutting my balls off. "It's just Nathan," Alice says. "Who cares what they're doing she goes off with him all the time without calling."

I frown, "Um I'm going upstairs I left my phone there. Alice do you want to hang with my friends today because they wanted to see me but I can cancel."

"Go ahead I'm taking Sarah to that Hello Kitty exhibit at the Children's Museum."

Sarah shoots me a pleading look to save her and I just shrug. I was stuck with the three of them yesterday she could deal with just Alice for a day. Plus it was kind of her fault that they were here in the first place. If she wasn't in her dumb play then we wouldn't be in this mess.

As quickly as I can without looking suspicious I walk up the stairs and find Harkat sitting in my bed reading a magazine I left out. Shit I hope he didn't find my porno stash because that would just be embarrassing! Quickly I shake the thought out of my head; there were more important things at stake like my missing cousin.

I grab my phone and text Dylan to meet me here before turning to Harkat, "We have an issue."

"What?" he asks but doesn't seem to sense my worried tone.

"I'm serious here my family's in trouble."

This gets his attention and he turns towards me, puts his mask on for a second, and takes it back off before talking, "Please tell me it isn't your sister again."

"Again?"

He looks away, "Sorry I shouldn't have said that."

"It's okay I kind of had a feeling my sister in my past life got sucked into everything, I just don't know specifics. And no it's not that. Lily, that's my cousin, and her boyfriend never came home last night."

"Didn't they try to kill you?" he asks and I nod. "They may have just run away."

That doesn't really make me feel any better and instead of answering him I just walk over to my computer to go and do some research while I wait for Dylan. After last night I figured it might be a good idea to take the little bit of information I have from my past life and look it up so I can get a better sense of at least when it was.

After logging onto my computer I google war of scars… only it tells me the server is down. Quickly I go to facebook and get on without a hitch. Confused, I type in a few other search terms that might help me and get nothing. Yet I search anything else like football or pics of hot girls and the page loads no problem.

Who the hell hacked onto my computer and blocked half of the sites I want to go to?  
I have a feeling its Mr. Tiny. There's no one else I know that would be able to do that and it seems like something he would do. Or actually it could be anyone. Apparently I'm not allowed to know anything so anyone could want to do it. It could just be the universe telling me not to do anything too.

No matter the why the what still annoys me and I turn decide to just quite searching. Instead I spend some time surfing through new music to download and getting done with my English essay. Personally I hate writing essays, but I should just get it done with.

Just as I start the editing process Dylan comes bursting through my door. I really hate that about him. Whenever he comes over my parents just let him in the house which is fine, the issue arises because then he thinks he has the A-Okay to just come waltzing into my room. And trust me it can cause a lot of issues. I've lost count of how many times he's come in when I'm just walking out of the shower or getting dressed. We've been put into many awkward situations because of this and he never learns his lesson.

Take now for instance. Even though I'm fully clothed he saunters into the room and the second he looks towards my bed he screams. "What the hell is that thing?" Scared to death of the little person he grabs a bat and gets ready to hit him.

"Don't," I growl and my eyes change in anger. This only scares him more, but this time he becomes submissive and drops the bat.

"Again what the hell is this?"

"I'm a who not a what thank you very much," Harkat rolls his eyes after he takes his mask off.

"I apologize, _who_ the hell is this?"

"Dylan meet Harkat, Harkat meet Dylan."

Both glare at each other and turn to me, "What is he doing here."

Regardless of the possible danger my family is in this cracks me up and I cannot help but laugh. "Harkat has to do with everything that is going on. We used to be really tight but I'm not really sure of anything besides that."

"Well if toilets explode then he can exist I guess," Dylan says hesitantly.

"And why does he know what is going on? You weren't supposed to tell anyone."

I put my hands up defensively, "Hey it wasn't my fault it just kind of happened. And Ms. Tall knows that he's in the loop anyway."

"On everything?"

"On everything that I know. He's been attacked with me a few times."

"Yeah that Mr. Tiny dude and Bill definitely want me dead," he shudders. "So what are you exactly?"

Since I met him I've been wondering the same thing, especially since we seem so close. "I'm a little person."

"A what?'

He sighs, "A little person. Your kind would call me a zombie of sorts."

"Wait your dead?" I ask.

"Kind of, I don't really have a body. After I died, well I had a lot of regrets," he looks at me sadly as he says this. "Mr. Tiny came to me and offered me a second chance to make a difference and gave me a body. All of us little people are the same in that respect although most cannot speak, we don't have tongues and the air here is poisonous which is why I have this mask. I only speak because of the reason I came back."

"And why was that? Dylan wonders. "And you work for Mr. tiny?"

"That's not relevant at the moment, and no I don't, my price to him was paid years ago" Harkat waves him off and he stares at me. A flash of the blonde dude from my dream dying flashes through my head along with images of Harkat beating a boar for me.

"Thank you for saving me all those times."

"You remember?"

"A few just now, but that's not the point. The point is that we need to help Lilly and Nathan."

"What sort of trouble could your cousin ever get into?" Oh right Dyl didn't hear what happened last night. I quickly fill him in on yesterday's events. "Why save her. Your cousin is insane plus she tried to kill you," he reasons.

"So? She was brainwashed into it obviously and attempted murderer or not she's still family."

"I vote you leave her."

"Your say doesn't matter, but I do need help. Please Dylan? If you do you can borrow MW3 for a month."

"Seriously? Because Mom still won't buy it for me."

"I swear," I vow. "Now where do we start?"

We both look to Harkat, "Why are you looking at me?"

"You're the one who knows what is going on."

"I don't think she ran away, I think she was either killed or taken by the vampaneze."

"Vampaneze?" we say at the same time.

"Um the group that's against us," he explains although I get the feeling he's leaving a lot out. "We call the humans that work for them vampets, thus the v. And I know their leader and Mr. Tiny, neither would let them just go."

"We should check the factory maybe they're staying near there."

Both of my friends, as I considered Harkat a friend, agree with me and Harkat climbs out of the window while Dylan and I walk out through the house. Mom and Dad weren't too happy with me leaving my sister with Alice; apparently it's alright for me to be in hell with them but not for her. But when I told them we were looking for Lilly they nodded and told me that was a good idea.

The two of us meet up with Harkat and the three of us make our way down to the abandoned factory.. I don't understand why nobody sees him, his small stature and bright blue robes aren't exactly inconspicuous. But for some reason nobody sees him. There's so much I don't know about him though so for all I know he does have the power to turn invisible.

Reaching the building we split up and start to look around. There's no trace evidence anywhere that I can see. Either they were that careful, cleaned up or there's just nothing behind. I have a strange feeling that I should be able to smell them and trace where they went, but I don't seem to be able to. Guess it's a Halfling thing I have yet to develop. Of course these abilities don't help me when I actually need them.

By the time we've scoped out the building and the area around it, mostly done by Harkat and I, its lunch time and we're no closer to finding them. And we've barely looked around at all; this was going to take forever. We're all hungry by now though and Dylan all but demands that we take a break to go and get food. Well he said to get _him_ food but technicalities aside the little person and I agree.

I let Harkat pick what to eat and he votes for sandwiches so we all head to the sub shop near my house. Once there I turn to Harkat, "How come nobody's looking at you strangely."

"Evanna…"

"Who?" Dylan interrupts.

"That's um Ms. Tall's first name. Anyway she made me a charm that disguises me and makes me look like a normal human."

"Then how come Dylan and I see you how you really are?"

"I'm not sure the specifics," he admits. "But I know nonhumans such as yourself see me as I am and I'm pretty sure all people who know the truth of the world see me like this or Evanna put a charm on Dylan too."

"She's a witch," I choke on my soda trying to get it out. "It does explain the frogs."

"Yeah those creep me out, and yes she is a witch or something similar enough that we call her a witch."

"So magic exists too," Dylan muses. "Maybe she'd make me a love potion since you're being a jerk and not helping your friend out."

"How would he help you?"

"His power to control minds," Dylan answers with a duh tone.

"I didn't have powers before?"  
"Not more than anyone else and nobody can control minds. And I'm guessing you made a force field last night. Evanna said this was possible but I wasn't sure if it was going to happen. It makes sense though."

"Yeah so he should help me."

"He would never do something like that, trust me," Harkat smiles before his expression sobers again. "Our search isn't working."

"I know," I groan. "But I think I know where we should look next."

Both of them give me identical looks of confusion. A smile forms on my list at that. It's kind of funny that the two of them get along so well and are so different yet so alike at the same time. Quickly I reign in my amusement so that I can get back on track and find my missing cousin.

We arrive at a house and Dylan frowns, "Why the hell would you come here out of your own free will?"

"I seem to remember you forcing me to come here earlier this year."

"That's because he was throwing a party and I really wanted to go. It's not like I knew back then that he wasn't even human," he looks from Harkat to me sheepishly and adds, "Not that there's anything wrong with not being human."

I shake my head at him and we all laugh at the absurdity that is Dylan. Harkat looks perplexed though, "I still don't understand what we're doing here."

"This is Bill's house, that vampaneze Halfling guy who goes to school with us."

"And why would they be hiding out here?"

"I have the feeling that this may be their hideout," I explain. "Nobody's ever seen Bill's family and if he isn't actually human then it would make sense."

"So what's the plan?" Dylan asks.

"Um I don't know," I admit, I hadn't thought that far yet.

"It may not be a good idea to just storm their fort."

I look at him incredulously, "No shit dude."

"Can you read minds yet," Harkat wonders.

"Um no. Why will I be able to?"

"If you can control minds it would make sense."

"That's it," I smile and open my mind. Suddenly I feel other minds and find some random human feeling one and command it to come outside, alone. About a minute later I pick up footsteps coming towards the door and a few seconds later a blonde haired guy walks over to me with a glazed look over his eyes.

"You know that's a little creepy," Dylan shudders. I ignore him.

Keeping open that connection with his mind I turn to him and say, "You'll answer every question I have." The dude nods. "Are there two humans in there with the names Lilly and Nathan?"

"Yes."

"What state are they in?"  
"The lord is not pleased with them. But he will not hurt them for they are his best chance at getting the boy He considers them bait at the moment."

"Okay, do you believe he will kill them?"

"I don't know."

Not the answer I was looking for, but beggars cannot be choosers. "He's waiting for us apparently."

"This isn't good," Harkat sighs. "You're in no shape to fight him yet Matt."

"Harkat has a point. Maybe we should call this whole operation off."

"No," I demand and my voice booms. "I'm not leaving my cousin there to die by the hands of him. No one else is getting hurt on my watch. We'll just have to find another way. How many people are in there?"

"Six humans and nine vampaneze."

So not the best odds in the world, "You will go in there and bring them out to me."

"Nobody is able to get near them. His most trusted advisor is watching over the two."

"Then kill him for all I care, but get the two out here!" I put a little more force behind it this time and he turns around to go and do as I willed.

"I doubt he can kill the guy," Dylan tells me."

"He's not meant to," Harkat guesses. "You mean for there to be a distraction."

"Of course, I'm not an idiot. There's no way I could get this guy right now." I also wasn't entirely sure about killing anyone but that wasn't something I was going to admit to these people who wanted me to somehow kill this guy.

We wait a few minutes until we hear an indistinguishable scream of terror. I gesture to the two of them and we run into the house. Nobody's around when we go through the back door and slowly as we walk through the house I see a large gathering of people in the living room standing over the guy who I was controlling. I send him another message to continue what he was doing and we run as quietly as possible up the stairs.

Lilly and Nathan are both sitting there unfazed by anything. The second they see us they open their mouths to scream and alert them to our presence, but we manage to cover their mouths. Harkat grabs Nathan and I grab Lilly as Dylan checks the corners and the hallway to make sure the coast is clear. He gives us the word and we get into the hallway. Only the hallway that even I can see is fine has the purple creatures in it a moment later. Vampaneze.

Harkat hands Nathan to me and then goes and manages to stab one in the chest without a second thought or any trouble. I'm only stunned by this for a moment before the other one attacks me. As he cuts my arm with his nails and blood gushes out four more creatures, two Halflings, a vampaneze, and a vampet, come rushing upstairs. With no choice we run back into the bedroom and shut the door. I open the window and jump out.

Harkat throws Lilly and Nathan down and I catch them. Next comes Dylan and I manage to catch him too, although he seems scared and in shock from falling down two stories. Harkat jumps out himself and we run as fast as we can away from the house.

We make it back to my house without one person trailing us and I can't help but think that this was too easy. These guys can run fast, so fast it's as if they're teleporting so there's no way that they wouldn't be able to catch us.

I push all of that out of my head, I'll deal with that later but right now I just need to find a way to get Lilly and Nathan to not get me killed and return them to their family who'll take them home away from here. Dylan follows me into the house as do the two murderers who come without a fight, but look incredibly terrified.

"Mom," I yell. "I'm home!"  
We meet up in the kitchen and she looks from me to Dylan to Lilly to Nathan. "Where were you two? I was worried sick."

"My parents don't care if we go and spend the night other places Auntie," Lilly explains.

"My house my rules," Mom insists and I cheer her on silently.

Nathan quickly apologizes and Lilly begrudgingly gives hers as well. She accepts it and Mom reaches towards her phone to call her sister and give her the news of her daughters return. I don't know where she is, but whatever. Dylan and I go upstairs to my room and I give Lilly a pointed look to come up with us. The two follow.

Once in my room Harkat comes out of my closet and glares at my cousin. Neither he nor Nathan seem surprised by the sight of them and I figure it's because they see many of these little people and not that they are affected by the charm. I sit on my bed and stare at them, "What the hell did you get yourself into Lilly."

"A way to save the world," she says dreamily. "All we had to do was bring them you and we'd help save the world."

"And our dream would come true," Nathan adds.

"So you were going to let me be killed?"

"Yes," Nathans says without feeling. "It was you or the world die. The vampaneze and Mr. Tiny were going to bring world peace and defeat the…"

"You two are idiots," Harkat laughs. "They aren't about peace, we are. All they are going to do is doom the world to a fate worse than hell. I've seen the beginning of it and it isn't pretty."

"The two of you would never survive in the world of shadows."'

Everyone stares at me when I say this, Lilly and Nathan in shock and anger, Dylan in confusion, and I couldn't read Harkat's face but I have a feeling I said something from our past. "Trust me when I say that future isn't one for any of you, out of everyone in this room I'm the only one who could live there in peace." Where did that come from?"

"You hate it there," Harkat chuckles.

"I don't even know what I'm saying. All I know is that the two of you have picked the wrong side."

"He told us you'd say that."

"Screw what your lord says," Dylan exclaims. "He's obviously a dick and isn't too be trusted. What good person would ask you to kill family? So lay off of it and just forget anything happened."

Dyl doesn't usually get that angry, but it makes sense as to why he's that mad. "I don't care about you trying to kill me. All I care about is your safety and after the dumb choice in alliances you two made they will kill you now."

"That's where you're wrong Matt, they aren't killers."

"Then you two are even more naïve than I imagined," Harkat sighs. "Matt this isn't going to work."

Really did he have to point out the obvious? It's not like I wasn't already freaking out about this. "I'm aware of that," I growl and my eyes change due to my aggravation.

Lilly squeals, "Oh my gosh your eyes!"

I wave my hand dismissively, "Yeah it's nothing."

"And you call us ignorant, "Nathan snorts. "To think you are the one and you don't even know it. No wonder he wanted you."

"Wait what are you talking about? You guys kidnapped me with the intent to kill and didn't even know why?"

My cousin shrugs, "we didn't ask, we did as our lord told."

I noticed the use of _did _and not _do_ but didn't comment on it. From Dylan's face though I figure he noticed the same thing, only he speaks up. "Did? You mean you are no longer following his orders?"

"He told us because of who he was we had to follow him, but he's wrong."

"Why?"

"Matt's the one, not him. He told us it was him but now I don't think so. Matt please will you give us what we want."

"No," Harkat says firmly before I can answer. "You don't know what you're asking for. Now do yourselves a favor and forget about all of this. Nobody's killing you right now when they're after Matt."

Both nod and after that my aunt calls them into the kitchen. Knowing her it's to yell at them, only because Mom's making her. And in that case I won't see them for at least an hour and by that time they're going to have to leave.

I'm happy about this for more than one reason. For one, well the less time spent with them the better. Second, I can't deal with their strange talk anymore. It's as if they look at me as a god and I'm not. It bugs me when people think I'm better than I actually am.

Instead I spend the rest of my afternoon playing video games with Dylan and Harkat. Dylan is still pissed that I'm beating him every time but he delights in the fact that he can beat Harkat, he loves winning anytime since Sam is the best at videogames. The more I watched the little person play the more I was convinced that he either has not ever played a game or hasn't played in years. He was bewildered by both the game itself and how to even use the control. Still, he was a fast learner and by the end of our game he did manage to pick it up a bit.

Mom as so happy that I managed to find Lilly and Nathan that she let Dylan stay for dinner and afterwards she told me I was allowed to go over to his house as long as I was home at a reasonable hour. This definitely worked in my favor because now I didn't need to sneak out to meet Vancha. I was eager to talk to the green haired guy. Something about him seemed so familiar and he just seemed to be an interesting character.

Dylan wasn't going to come with me though. He felt awkward going with me if I was going to find out about myself. So with a promise to explain to him everything that happened we split up halfway to his house and I took the dirt bike path to the abandoned church.

Why anyone would spend their time and stay in an abandoned church baffled me. In all honesty the place gave me the creeps and on top of that it couldn't have been comfortable. For some reason I have the feeling I've done that before and I don't get the feeling that I enjoyed it very much. Not sure exactly what to do I just walk through the front door. The church wasn't very large and I saw the two of them on a pew talking, Harkat left my house before dinner. I hear them whispering about what had happened to us today and I clear my throat to make my presence known.

"Oh hello Matt, come over here," Vancha calls and I make my way up to the front and sit on a pew. "Care for a drink?"

I take him up on his offer and taking a chug of it I realize it's the same soda that Ms. Tall has. He seems amused by me as I take a sip and I frown, "So I'm guessing you've been filled in on everything?"

"What Harkat knows I know."

"Um so what do I do?"

"Nothing except what Evanna wants you to do. Trust her and you'll be fine. She promises that she'll be much more helpful in the war."

"Is there anything you can tell me? She's refused to answer the majority of my questions."

Vancha smiles, "Of course she wouldn't. I swear I don't know what my brother saw in her."

"Your brother and you are close?"

"You remember him?"

"Not really, just that you have a brother you don't get along with."

"We hated each other. He was a vampaneze, their lords most respected actually, and second in command. Once the war ended and his lord died he realized his mistakes and even though we were different we managed to make a truce. He fell in love with Evanna and when his lord came back he killed my brother to punish him for not continuing his legacy."  
"But was he still a vampaneze?"

"Of course, he had been for too long not to be, what do you know about them?"

"Just that they're the ones we're fighting against and have purple skin and red eyes. Harkat wouldn't tell me anything else."

"What was I supposed to tell him?" Harkat speaks up. "If I told him anything more the entirety of the situation would be revealed and he's not ready."

"You have a point but I think he should know. If he doesn't then nothing will make sense," Vancha muses.

"I'm still here!"

"Right of course," he chuckles.

"If you don't mind me asking why the animal pelts and boomerangs? Wouldn't a gun be a lot more effective?"

"A gun," he spits. "I would never use something so vile."  
"Don't yell Vancha, he doesn't understand."

"Shut up Harkat. You know I hate it when you're right. Our kind don't use electronics or current day weaponry."  
"So we're stuck in the dark ages?"

"You could say that."

"What's our kind anyway?"

Harkat and Vancha stare at each other as if they were having a silent debate. They sigh and Vancha looks at me solemnly, "I think it's time we tell you the truth."

**Cliff hanger aren't you so excited! So I'm sorry for the lack of the last two updates, but on Saturday my internet wasn't working so I meant to post this chapter Tuesday and the first week of school got in my way. So just know updates may be missing a few days here and there but I'll keep trying my best even though so far Junior year is insane.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Lie, Lie, Truth?**

Finally, "So what's so bad that nobody would tell me until now?'

They look at each other again and frown, shit that look does not seem good. "Are you positive you want to know?"

I growl and my eyes change, "What's so wrong with me wanting to know about my life? I don't know who or what I am anymore and all I want is answers. Ms. Tall won't give them to me. Mr. Tiny won't give them to me even when he's threatening me. My cousin knows stuff about me and won't even tell me! So yeah I think I want to know."

Vancha sighs, "The vampaneze are exactly as you describe them, but you're missing one essential part of what makes them who they are. Vampaneze are ruthless murderers who will kill anyone for their blood."

A laugh escapes my throat, "Okay so now you're saying vampires exist? That crap may work on my cousin but not me."

Harkat looks at a fuming Vancha and continues, "It's no lie Matt, but they are not vampires they are vampaneze. Vampires are completely different creatures."

"What do you mean?" I ask, but the laughter doesn't go away.

"Centuries ago all vampires lived together in peace," Vancha says. "Humans began getting more powerful and had the means to kill the humans so they were all forced to hide. Vampires aren't the bloodthirsty creatures of myth. Instead of killing we take a little bit of blood and leave the human unharmed. A group of extremists believed this to be wrong, that vampires were the superior race and should treat humans just as food. Eventually war broke out and the group that split off went their own ways, becoming the vampaneze."

I think about what he just said, "You said we."

He nods, "That I did."

"So you're a vampaneze. I mean you don't go in the sun and all."

Harkat laughs, "No he's a vampire, his brother was a vampaneze though."

A memory plays through my head, "And you were one too, but were changed into a vampire by Paris."

Vancha's eyes light up, "You remember that?"

"No," I says quickly. "It was a mistake, vampires don't exist."

"It's the truth Matt," he sighs.

"If vampaneze and vampires are the same then why are the vampaneze purple?"

"All the blood they consume colors them."

"Bill wasn't purple."

"It only happens after a significant period of time. Plus Harkat described this Bill to me and I believe he was only a Halfling."

My heart stops, "So you're calling me a vampaneze?"

"No," Harkat snorts, "they hate you. You're half vampire, half human."

If it's possible my heart stopped even more than it did before, "I'm not a vampire. I don't know what insane pills you two are taking but I'm done. If you aren't going to tell me the truth then find some new hero."

As I turn to leave Vancha screams my name, "I wasn't born yesterday, I know you must be craving blood and probably have acted on those urges without realizing it. And what do you think Evanna has been giving you to drink, bottled blood."

"No," I tell him. "I'm not this Halfling thing, I don't know why everyone's saying that. I'm just a human, a human with strange abilities but a human nonetheless."

"Of course you are, vampires don't have these abilities, you and their lord are different and that's why only you too can stop this…again."

"One upping destiny is like lightning striking, it won't happen twice and I'm not going to die again!" where the hell did that come from?

"So you admit we are telling you the truth?"

"I don't know anymore," I sob. "My head frickin hurts from these memories making their way through my brain. I'm tired and drained and all I want is to sleep and forget the past life or the past few weeks have ever happened. I have a great life and this isn't going to ruin it."

"I thought you were done from running," Vancha sighs. "Larten taught you better than that."

A growing ball of energy makes its way through my body, "Don't you dare bring Mr. Crepsley into this," I scream. "And stop comparing me to the person I was because I'm not him anymore. I'm just Matt and frankly it isn't my responsibility to stop Steve and Mr. Tiny again. I bargained my peace with Mr. Tiny and I'm going to get it!"

Once done screaming the anger takes hold of me and suddenly a giant wave of pure energy pushes Vancha and Harkat away from me. I run back to my house and once inside I lean against the door and push tears back. I'm not one to cry, but something about that conversation really got to me."

Mom comes over to me and looks at me, concern filling her eyes, "What happened Matt? Did you get in a fight with Dylan or something? Are you hurt?"

She hugs me and in the mood I'm in a don't stop her, I welcome the comfort. Sarah comes skipping over and looks at me, "Matt's okay Mommy," she smiles. "He's the strongest person I know."

I smile at her and ruffle her hair before heading upstairs to bed. After the day I had with saving Lilly and now this bombshell of a lie I'm beat. Sleep sounds like heaven right now and I drift away as soon as my head hits the pillow.

I wake up in a cold sweat, panting. Glancing over at my clock I groan upon realizing it's only two in the morning. Shaking my head I try to get rid of the images playing through my mind. It works and I fall back asleep.

An hour later I wake up screaming. The dreams had returned and this time I lie in bed with the dream floating through my head. Images of tunnels filled with blood and some guy named Morlough who's threatening a girl I feel close to and a snake boy who's being held upside down. Suddenly it rearranges itself and I'm in a barren dessert with Harkat fighting a panther, then a grotesque looking creature who's being worshipped by the same person I saw in the cave from my other dream. I throw a bomb at it; well it acted like a bomb but seems to be jelly, and it dies. Dragons fly through the air and we manage to avoid death.

I'm standing in a cavern with the guy from my other dream with the orange hair and Vancha. Somebody kills the orange haired guy and through my anger and tears I make out some guy who I want to call leopard declaring himself the vampaneze lord.

Then the picture changes and some guy who I think is a friend and another friend who resembles a snake and I are climbing around an old train-track. Suddenly it becomes night and creature that looks half human-half wolf comes running after me and the normal looking guy whom I want to call Sam. Sam manages to get in the crossfire and is brutally mauled. Next thing I know my head is over him and I suck his blood.

"Matt, Matt, Matt!" Mom and Dad scream as they shake me awake.

I quickly jump up, afraid that someone wants to hurt me, realizing it's them I lay back down, "What happened?"

"You were having a terrible nightmare," Mom explains.

"Oh right, I remember," I shudder, wishing I didn't remember.

"Are you sure you're alright Matt?" Dad asks.

"I've already told you Dad I'm not on drugs," I roll my eyes…if only it was that simple.

"I never said you were, but something's not right. You've been off for weeks and then you came home last night all upset and mad."

"Who's been hurting you," Mom blurts out and quickly covers her mouth.

"No one, I've just I don't know."

"That boy isn't giving you anymore problems?'

It takes me a minute to realize they're talking about Bill, "Not really, he's just obnoxious but I'm not in another coma so that's good."

"You'll tell us when you're ready?"

I nod and look at the clock, "Why'd you let me oversleep?"  
"It looked like you needed it," Mom shrugs. "I'll drive you to school in a half an hour on my way to work."

Nodding, I get out of bed and they leave me alone to get ready. I put the shower on extremely hot and let the water scorch me, hoping it will untighten my muscles. No such luck. Getting out I only wasted five minutes and after putting on a random tee-shirt and a pair of jeans I walk downstairs to find pancakes waiting for me.

I grab one and Sarah starts whining, "Matt, that one was the S mom made for me! Take the M or a circle."

Laughing I just take a bite and she starts to chase me around the house until Mom stops us and gives me a funny look. I don't blame her; I was brooding and screaming a few minutes before. At the moment though everything feels normal and I miss that feeling. It's not life or death or mythical creature related. It's just me and my sister messing with one another.

Soon enough my moment ends and I'm forced to face the inevitable with school. Since I'm late I go straight to gym class. On the bright side I got to miss bio, but I also have to deal with getting through gym class which has been difficult lately. I ignore Sam in the locker room and only give Anna a small smile when we meet up with her.

All we did was play handball today so at least nobody, and that includes me, got hurt.

In history Dylan keeps trying to get me to tell him what happened last night. I don't answer him and I see that he's a little worried and a whole lot pissed. Whatever, I can't deal with him right now. Easier said than done though since he's throwing spit balls at me. Making sure nobody is looking at me I glare at him and let my eyes start to swirl. That works and he leaves me alone.

We walk to lunch together and he's silent. I can't tell what that means and in all honesty I'm a bit worried. Once at lunch we find everyone else and he manages to sit away from me. Anna sits next to me and once again I just smile at her and try to join in on the stupid conversation that Lindsay is starting.

Halfway through lunch Sam starts yelling at me, "What the hell is your problem Matt?"  
"What do you mean?"  
"I mean that you've been acting like a depressed girl who's PMSing for the past half hour and all of this morning."

Even in my bad mood I crack a smile at this, "I'm fine, just dealing with the usual annoyance that my cousins bring. Plus I had to spend my Sunday looking for Lilly and her boyfriend who ran away."

They all take this as a good excuse, well minus Dylan, and nod. "Sorry we didn't come help you with them," Anna laughs.

"No we're not," Lindsay interjects. "I frickin hate them."  
Everyone laughs and for the remainder of lunch I join in the conversations, not as much as I normally would but not a sentence or two as I have been doing. Especially after this weekend it just feels as if I don't belong with them. They talk about the movies they saw this weekend or the upcoming wrestling match against our rivals. What would I say about my weekend? I was almost murdered and then found out I'm even stranger than I thought? Not that I even believe the whole "truth" but still.

The truth is that I'm not the same person I was. It's not as if they're my friends who I can tell everything too. Recently my life's become something straight out of a horror movie and it's not as if I can relate to what they talk about. I know they feel it too. Or they felt it before I did that Jedi thing to their minds. In all honesty I feel terrible about manipulating their minds. Even though they're acting as if nothing happened and listening to what I say without question it feels wrong and I'd rather them be mad than fake.

I'm not going to do anything to fix it though, I'm afraid of the consequences. But I'm going to do my best to stay out of their minds from now on.

The second the bell rings I rush out of the cafeteria and towards my next class. Anna comes running after me and looks at me sadly. She hugs me and I hug her back. Neither of us says a word and eventually I kiss the top of her head before making my way to class, entering the room right as the bell rings.

My afternoon flies by and I'm glad for that. I'm really not in the mood for school, there's too much other crap on my mind. School does make me feel normal though, and that's a relief. At my locker packing up Dylan comes over to me. I groan, I really don't feel like dealing with him right now.

"What the hell did they tell you last night dude? You're seriously in a mood right now."

I throw my backpack onto my shoulders, "I don't want to talk about it Dylan. Don't you have practice today anyway?"

"Yeah but I'll be late. Just tell me what happened?"

"You want to know what they said," I snap. "Apparently I'm a bloodsucking monster of the night?'

"As in a vampire? Dude you walk in the sun and you had Italian food for dinner last night."

"Garlic is a myth as are crosses," I inform him absentmindedly, not sure why I know that. "And anyway that's what Halfling means, I'm half human. Bill's a Halfling too before you ask but a vampaneze. They're evil vampires who kill when they feed. Ludicrous I know."

"I don't know Matt, it kind of makes sense. And why's it matter as long as you aren't killing people. Think about how much you'll scare people into submission with your eye thing and fangs!"

"I don't have fangs," I growl. "And how can you believe this?"

"One, you crave raw steak. Second that Vancha guy won't walk in the sun and that explains why the vampaneze need humans to help them and why they didn't chase us yesterday. Three, you're super strong and fast. Four, your cousin wanted to be a vampaneze and must have lied to her. And four, you totally look at me as if you want to eat me."

He sees the glare on my face and puts his hands up, "Kidding about that last one."

"Just lay off it, they obviously are insane."

Instead of saying anything he just shakes his head and walks away towards the locker rooms. I sigh; does everyone think that I could be a monster?

And because I'm a freak I head home after school once again instead of going to wrestling like I wish I could. What's the point of having these powers if I can't even do what I want? Story of my life…the freak.

Mom and Dad are at work so I have to take the bus home even though I don't want to. Halfway home from the bus stop I spin around and hiss. "Harkat I know you're there just come out."

He steps out of the shadows and turns to me, "How'd you know I was there?"

"Um I heard and smelled you," I lie. In all honesty it was that and the fact that I could sense him, his being or whatever pressing against me. I could have sworn the shadow whispered it in my ear, but that's impossible. The words lord of the shadows comes to me and I get rid of the thought.

"Uh huh," he says as if he knows I'm lying. "You look terrible."

"Thanks," I snort. "You try not sleeping and dealing with nightmares of stuff you don't remember." I pause for a moment, "Wait I guess you do expect you don't need sleep as much."

"You remember that?"

I shake my head, "I don't remember a lot of stuff I say but I say it anyway."

He nods as if this makes sense to him. I start walking again and he starts following me. Even though I really don't want to see him I don't say anything. It won't do any good since he'll keep on following me. As soon as I get into the kitchen and grab a piece of pizza I turn and face him. "If you must be here do you want a snack?"

"You have any more pizza?" he asks and I hand him a piece. "Based on your mood I'm guessing you don't believe me yet."

"How can I Harkat?"

"You believe that I'm kind of like a zombie."

"That's different…"

"How?" he cuts me off.

"It just is," I tell him.

Harkat shakes his head, "That sounds like denial to me."

"Why do you care so much? I'd still be friends with you if I wasn't anything special."

"This is a lot bigger than me Matt. This is about the fate of the world. You're the only one who can stop it."

"Stop what?" I bark at him. "Why bother saving the world if I'm not the same person coming out afterwards. Why live if my friends don't like me anymore? I'm becoming ostracized which is strange considering I was one of the most popular guys in school before who everyone liked."

"That's a little selfish."

"I don't care anymore about being selfish. I just want to be human and normal!"

"Well you aren't, get used to that."

"Then at least tell me the truth," I all but beg.

"We did," he says solemnly. "And the sooner you believe the truth the better."

"I may not remember much Harkat but I don't remember you being this mean," I tell him bitterly.

"You haven't been around," he says sadly.

"It's not me you're looking for anyway," I remind him. "You're looking for someone who no longer exists."

Before he can answer the front door opens and I groan. That strange whispering is going on in my head along with the pressure thing. What are they doing here and why didn't I lock the door?

"Did someone call for a cheering up session?" Sam calls from the front hall.

"I'm in the kitchen."

Dylan and Sam walk into the kitchen and Dylan looks from Sam to Harkat and frowns. "Sam what do you see here?"

He looks at Dyl as if he was crazy, "Um I see Matt and some guy I don't know. Who are you anyway?"

"Oh sorry Sam this is my friend Harkat. Harkat this is Sam."

"Harkat? That's a weird name."

"My parents are from Germany," he lies, well I think. His original last name sounds German to me even though I can't quite remember it…

Sam frowns, "And how do you know Matt."

"Old friends," we say together.

After this Sam just nods, "You do look pretty German. Hey how tall are you because I swear you have to be at least six feet."

The three of us start laughing and Sam just stares at us. I sober up and look at my friends, "What are you doing here? What happened to practice?"

"Playing hooky," Dylan explains after he stops laughing. "Figured you need some cheering up so we called your parents and got permission to kidnap you."

"Please don't tell me we're going where I think we are?  
"Where else would we go?" Sam snorts.

"What do you mean?" Harkat asks.

"He means we're going to the skate park and then pigging out. It's what we always do when one of us is in a funk," I explain. "Which is fine except last time we did Dylan got a concussion and Sam needed stiches because they ran into each other."

"It was his fault," they laugh in stereo and I groan.

"Let me grab my stuff," I roll my eyes and run up to my room to grab my skateboard.

To my surprise the skate park is relatively empty and besides from a fat ten year old we have the place to ourselves. Sam looks at me with awe, "When did you get so good?"

I shrug, "Practice I guess. Or you're that much worse."

He glares at me and starts to chase me around. I laugh at him and easily get away from him and head towards the half pipe. Harkat is sitting on the side watching us. Even though I offered him my extra stuff he told me he'd rather just sit and watch. Apparently skating didn't sound fun to him. Personally I don't get it though since I find it ridiculously fun and turns out to be exactly what I need.

My friends are great about not pushing me into talking about my feelings. Well these two are; Lindsay and Anna never stop. And right now just a regular day with them is what I need. After about an hour and a half of skating we head towards my house and grab a bunch of food which we take up to my room.

We eat probably half the house and talk about which girls are hot at the moment and they try to get me to talk about how far I've been with Anna. We play some video games and watch some stupid TV. All in all it's the best afternoon I've had in a while. Harkat doesn't mention anything about the other stuff and I'm glad for that. I'm positive it's because of Sam but the reason doesn't matter…only the effect.

Once the chips are done Sam gets up to get another bag and trips on a pair of shoes, tripping and falling onto a screwdriver I had sitting on the floor. He gets up and curses, "Shit, I think I need a band aid or twenty."

I look at him and shudder. Without realizing it I'm right on top of him and he screams.


	20. Chapter 20

**Friends Don't Eat Friends**

Harkat and Dylan jump over to me, but I easily dodge them and get them off of me. My eyes blaze molten silver and I hiss inhumanly. Dylan backs away while Harkat gets closer again. Glaring at him, I let my energy escape and create a force field around Sam and me. Not conscious of my actions I latch my mouth onto his cut.

Sam screams and looks up at me in fear. I barely register this however and start sucking his blood. And I don't know why anyone would say it tastes disgusting. The taste is hard to describe, but it was a mix between chocolate and steak and ice cream and pickled onions. Hell it was better than pickled onions, not by much though. It seemed to be the elixir of life and I couldn't get enough.

I see myself hunting for small game. Dead raccoons, squirrels, rodents and such. A small blue hooded figure with a limp is to my far right. To my far left is a figure who changes from child to adult before my eyes. His skin is made of scales and his tongue is up in his nose. We laugh as we toss carcasses into sacks on our shoulders, Octa crawls up onto my shoulder.

Some older man and I are walking through cave halls lined with illuminating moss. We head deeper and deeper into the cave until we enter a cavern filled with millions of spiders. He smiles at them and I do too. Something about the room gives me peace. Some spiders are brown while other are more colorful. Octa walks out of a crevice with what seems to be the spider king. Seba and I laugh at the sight.

An image of the me that isn't really me flashes through my eyes and I'm sitting in a theater watching the orange haired guy. I'm standing in said theater with the orange haired guy and yell at him. I hand him a colorful spider that I swear is Octa and he looks at me appraisingly. He smiles at me and takes my hand and pricks the ten of them with his fingers. I see him prick his own scarred finger tips and press them against mine, whispering a name that leaves my head as suddenly as it comes. Blood courses from me to him… my sire.

Pain erupts throughout my veins and threatens to reach my heart. Freaked out about the images and possessed by a shadowy voice telling me to back away, I do get off of him and back up until I collapse onto the floor against my bed. Lifting my hands up I stare at them as if they were soaked with blood, an image straight from Macbeth even though I've never read it.

Wait that isn't exactly true. Paris had an old copy straight from Shakespeare's days and I was forced to read it to the illiterate people around me.

I know there's no blood on my hands, figuratively and literally. If anything there is blood around my mouth. And I didn't kill Sam. His heartbeat is still constant and loud, the sign of health. But at the same time it's as if his life is on me. Guilt rushes into me and I don't want it to ever leave, I don't deserve for it to leave. I ate my best friend…I frickin _ate_ my best friend

Looking down I sigh, Sam's passed out. That might be better though, if he was awake he'd still be screaming at me. Harkat looks at me with sympathy and an air of condescension. He opens his mouth as if he's going to lecture me. But he doesn't. Dylan is slowly backing away from me and is holding up my MVP trophy from football season as a weapon. His back hits the door and he stares at me.

He's scared. Scared of me. Scared of what I could possibly do to him. Scared of the possibility that I would eat him. Scared of the best friend he's known for years. Scared of me.

I look at them and gulp, a lone tear escaping, "I'm sorry." It comes out as a whisper and I hope they heard it.

Harkat purses his lips, well I think he did, "We need Vancha or Evanna."

"is h-h-h-h-e a-a-a-a-a-a-a-alive," Dylan stutters. I don't think I've ever seen this freaked out.

"Yes," Harkat nods and Dylan and I sigh in relief. "He's lost a little too much blood is all. It should only be an hour or two before he wakes up. And before you ask I only know that from living with vampires for my entire life."  
For some reason I get the sense he knows that firsthand too, but I don't mention it. Sam's still passed out on the floor. Bleeding. His blood doesn't look good anymore though; it looks downright sickening. And as much as I'm glad I'm able to walk in the sun…it would be nice if my spit could heal him right now.

I don't even bother to think where that came from.

Sighing, I walk over to him and press my hand against his injury. A bright light blazes throughout the room in a brilliance of white and blue and gold and red. It dies down and besides from a small cut, Sam looks normal. His shadow smiles at me and winks before whispering to me that he won't remember anything after he fell, he'll imagine it was a dream. I nod and thank it.

Dylan looks at me as if I'm crazy. Definitely a possibility saying that I just had a conversation with a shadow, but I know I'm not. Glancing from Sam to me, his fear grows and I exhale loudly. A sharp pain shoots through me again and my heat tremors.

I drop to the floor groaning in agony. Harkat looks towards me and shakes his head, "This isn't supposed to happen yet."

"What?" Dylan asks.

"His memories are threatening to come back, his body's making the change."  
"So he is going crazy? Because I'm pretty sure he just talked to the air."

The little person shrugs, "I'm not quite sure. He's never done that before. It could be a part of the prophecy and what he's becoming though."

"Then if it's going to happen why stop it?" he wonders, although years of talking to him make me realize that Dylan doesn't want it to happen either. If that happens I'll be this other guy, not me.

"It's too soon, he isn't ready. Dylan call Evanna now and get her over here."

"What about Vancha? I mean it's going to be dark soon."

"Vampires don't use technology," Harkat snorts. "It's annoying as hell in times like this though."

Dylan is obviously curious about this, but doesn't ask. Instead he takes out his phone and dials a number that Harkat relays to him. With the little energy I have I put my hand up in front of me and tell them to stop.

Standing up I move my neck in a circle to get rid of the stiffness. "I'm fine I swear just a little chest pain and a bit of a headache. Nothing to worry about, seriously."

Both of them look at me disbelievingly and Harkat frowns, "Matt if it is your past resurfacing there could be a huge problem."

"Isn't that what you want?" I snap at him. "You want him to come back and save the world again."

"Are we really having this argument again?"

"Not really, let's just drop it."

He nods and I turn to an uncharacteristically quiet Dylan. I can't remember the last time he hasn't has something to say. It's more than a little uncomfortable and, well weird. "Dylan you're quiet."

"Sorry man, I mean I know we joked about this, but you just sucked your best friends blood."

Oh right, I almost forgot about that with all the excitement of regaining some unusual memories. "Um," I trail off when Sam comes to and moans.

"What happened? I had the weirdest dream."

The three of us look at each other and I answer, "You fell and hit your head. What was your dream about anyway?"

"I could have sworn you were sucking my blood like a vampire creep Matt," he laughs and I join in halfheartedly. In all honesty my ire threatens to boil over at the fact that he called me a creep.

"That's crazy," Dylan tells him without any emotion. "If Matt ate anyone it would be Anna."

And even though it was a cover story to hide the truth we all start laughing at his joke. That was the Dylan I knew, even if it was an act. With all that happened it was nice to see something normal happen.

"I have to go," Harkat says quickly. "Matt Vancha's going to want to see you."

"I know, tell him I'll be there tomorrow I guess."

Harkat leaves and Sam looks at me, "Who's Vancha?"

"His brother," I lie.

"Should have figured with a name like that. Since when have you known them anyway? I thought we were your only friends?"

"Funny," I roll my eyes.  
"What?" he asks all innocently. "Not my fault that you're that unlikable. I don't even know why I put up with you."

Picking up a shoe next to me I chuck it at his head and he dodges it. "Come on dude I already have an injury! You trying to kill me or something?"

Dylan laughs uncomfortably, "Yeah because Matt would never try to kill you right?"

I glare at him and Sam looks at him awkwardly, "And that's supposed to be funny why?"  
"No reason," we say together.

"You're just weird," Sam chuckles. "Now get me some ice cream!"

"And I should get off of my ass and get you food why?"

"It's your house," Dylan points out.

"Screw that! I'm the one who almost died today because of your frickin screwdriver so you owe me food."

"You already ate half my house?"

"Yeah now get me the other half," Sam reasons.

After that our afternoon turns average again; video games, making jokes, teasing one another and of course eating the other half of my house. Sam really didn't think anything was wrong and that I didn't eat him. Dylan on the other hand is still looking at me as if I could snap and turn on him at any second.

In all honesty I don't blame him. If I was in his position I would be damned scared as well. And even though I don't think or foresee myself biting him, I really don't know. Wait do I even bite people? Either way it's as if this foreign creature is living inside of me and could come out at any second.

About an hour later they leave and my family comes home with carryout. Sitting at the table I take a bit of my burrito and listen to my family talk. I'm silent though. It's weird sitting with them and realizing that I'm not like them. I'm not even the same species as them. A little discerning if I think about it.

Mom and Dad look at me with worry in their eyes and I try my best to avoid them. It doesn't help me at all to see them look at me like that. And really how am I supposed to get them to believe that I'm okay and not doing drugs if I'm really not okay. Thinking about it too, well it is easy to imagine that I'm on drugs with how I've been acting. Drugs would probably be an easier issue to deal with than my non-humanness.

Sarah tries her best to talk to me, but I give her one word BS answers. Knowing her she doesn't even notice though. She tends to ramble so much that a few words sounds like a whole conversation to her. At the moment I'm pretty thankful for that.

Once dinner ends I run upstairs and after doing as little bit of homework I can get away with I take out my laptop to search anything I can about vampires. Being ignorant about my own race is probably not a good thing. Plus I have to admit I am curious about what this whole vampire thing means for me.

Unlike last time I searched about this stuff my answers come up, well at least the ones about vampires do. According to the websites I read I am eventually going to grow fangs and become so evil that the sun and garlic and holy water and crosses will burn me alive. Or I'm going to become a demon or an angel, I read both, with the powers of a succubus. Or I'll become immortal by bathing in blood. Or my favorite, I'll become sparkly and be able to read minds.

Anna may be a Twilight fan, but she likes me without me sparkling in the sun.

Eventually I do stumble upon a sight that sounds more legit. It's made by a group of vampire hunters and fascinated I enter a chat with some guy.

**Me-My cousins were captured by what they called vampaneze, do you know what they are?"**

**Vampfighter334- idiot, that's not even a real thing. Vampires give fake names to confuse people**

**Me-are they purple?**

**Vampfighter334-some are, are you interested in killing them?**

**Me-I just need more information. How do you kill one?**

**Vampfighter334-a stake through the heart. **

Freaked out I exit and wince at the image. Suddenly I'm transported to another place, at least in my head again. This time it's a field where I see Vancha in the sun. I walk over to a convenient store and run into a group of hunters. Back in my room, Octa crawls over to me. I sigh; this research thing isn't going to work. Even the "real deal" guys don't know a thing. Fed up with this I change and lie in bed.

The most frustrating thing is that the answers are locked up in my head somewhere; everything I need to know is within reach. Yet it isn't, learning the truth will whisk me away into nonexistence. I already feel it happening too. Part of me doesn't know who I am anymore. It's no longer just a few memories. A part of me feels different.

Thinking about anything, a second opinion pops into my head. Looking at something intrusive thoughts enter my head. And I am slowly starting to feel myself slip away. It's as if I'm becoming one of the shadows that it stalking me. I wonder if shadows coming alive is a part of being undead?  
I don't think I'm actually dead though, my heart is still beating. Harkat says I'm going to go through a change soon. When that happens will my heart stop? Will the blood pumping through my veins from the orange haired guy reach my heart and change me forever? Or will it simply kill the me I've always been?

With these thoughts racing through my head, I drift away only to dream of a life as someone else. Someone who is me, but isn't me. And as I fall into unconsciousness a shadow crawls across my wall and bows to me. Half asleep I can't tell if it's just my imagination though.

I pray it is.

**Next chapter will see more Vancha, sorry he hasn't been in it but it's taken placed during the day.**


	21. Chapter 21

**A Shadow of Myself**

It takes all of energy and willpower to get out of bed and get dressed for school. Really what was the point of it? If I truly was a vampire prince, which I guess I kind of am, then why bother with school? All I want to do is lie in bed and just do nothing. Depression is quickly taking over, as if it was one of those diseases that I can never remember the name but kill you before you even know you're sick. I really just don't want to see the world right now. If I'm being honest, well I can't handle it.

How can I go on living as if I'm the same person if I'm not even human?

Eventually I manage to get out of bed however. Not because I want to, but because school is probably the only normal thing in my life at the moment and normal sounds good. Plus the fact that I'm already worrying my parents enough; if I stop showing any effort at all they'd probably lock me up or something.

I run down the stairs and decide to skip breakfast. Since the whole Sam incident yesterday food just doesn't sound good. Well I guess it technically does, but I'm too scared to eat it. Some part of me feels that if I eat it then eventually it will stop tasting good since it isn't blood. The foreign part of my mind tells me I'm being ridiculous and to stop being a drama queen. A valid point, but I'm not going to listen to the _thing_ that's trying to take over, even if it technically is me.

Instead I decide since I'm up early, couldn't sleep…too many nightmares, I'd make breakfast. When I take out the pots to fry bacon and eggs a vision of me cooking soup in some foldable pot hits me and I almost drop the egg I'm cracking. These things are getting frickin annoying! Plus I don't understand why pots would fold.

Sensing my mood or something a dark blob appears on the shadow, actually the shadow of what seems to be a mosquito flying around. And I'm not sure how, but the insect shadow seems to take the food and cook it while I stay there paralyzed. Once finished it bows to me. Pissed off at the hallucination or whatever that was I feel my eyes change color and the pots start shaking from my angry energy.

I hear footsteps and instantly calm down. My eyes become green again and I sigh in relief as Mom and Dad enter the kitchen. Apparently I'm not allowed to get angry anymore without terrible consequences. Just one more thing I'm going to have to change about my life.

Dad frowns at me, "Since when do you cook breakfast?"

"Um I do cook a lot. I'm not very good at it but eggs and bacon is easy." Especially when it's only for four and not forty.  
"Um Matt I don't think I've ever seen you cook in your life."

Right, memories taking over again I guess. "Well then surprise!"

Mom laughs uncomfortably to try and ease the tension, "And you positive we won't get food poisoning?"

Taking the hint I roll my eyes, "Yes Mom I'm not that incompetent, I'm not going to poison you." At least I won't, who knows about the person living in me or the mosquito that cooked it.

Awkwardly, we all make our way to the table and eat. Sarah comes running down the stairs and looks at me as if I've grown an extra head. Knowing my luck I did. I just push my food around, I don't feel like eating any more than when I woke up. As I grab my backpack and head to the door Mom calls my name and I turn towards her, "Matt where did you find Lilly exactly?"

"The park across town," I lie. "Why?"

"She just sounded weird when I talked to her yesterday."

"Why would you _talk_ to her?"

"Be nice," she scowls, "and I was trying to reach your Aunt. Anyway she was asking weird questions about you and seemed to be worshipping you. Just wanted to make sure you didn't save her from real trouble."  
"No Mom, unless you count swings and annoying children as danger." That and insane vampaneze.

"Maybe she thinks you're a vampire," Sarah suggests and I almost fall down out of shock. Instead an inhuman growl threatens to rip through my tightly closed lips and my eyes threaten to change. I already feel my anger rising and see a coat hanger about to stab her in the back.

"Don't be ridiculous Sarah, we don't want to even joke about your cousin's delusions," Dad tells her and a she glares at Dad I regain control and the coat hanger drops to the ground. I wave goodbye and run out of the door before it hits the ground, definitely moving faster than I should be able to.

The bus pulls away as soon as I reach the bus stop, leaving me stranded. Aggravated to the max I growl into the empty air. Octa appears at my feet and climbs up to my shoulder. I feel her eyes on me, carefully examining what move I'm going to make. Something in me stirs and suddenly it feels as if I'm flying.

Not literally, but I'm running so fast that it seems as if I am. Somehow I know that I'm not flitting, if I were I'd be at school in an instant. No, instead I'm running at a speed in between sprinting and flitting. I'm at school in eight minutes with Octa on my shoulder.

I'm still a little later than I thought though, apparently my bus was late too, so the bell rings as soon as I'm done with my locker and I begrudgingly head to biology with Ms. Tall. Dealing with her right now just isn't what I want to do. It's too soon. Not only do I have no idea how to treat my inhumanness, but I also don't want to hear her tell me about my destiny that I'm not positive about and tell me to be someone I am not.

Walking into the classroom I smile, Ms. Tall isn't here and instead on the chalkboard it says Mr. M. He's this beast sub we get once in a while who just lets us do whatever. My day just got a lot better. Or it did for a second until Madison leans over to me, "That sub is a lot hotter than the Mr. M I know."

Confused, I look to the door and have to do a double take at the sight I see. "Hello students," an amused voice says and the black haired tan guy stares at me in particular. Great, just great. "I am usually called your highness, but I will allow you all to call me Mr. M or Mr. March."

The class laughs and I groan, did he think he was funny?  
"As you can tell I am, what's the word, subbing for your sub. Ms. Tall is out on other business and asked me to cover for her. We are close," he smirks and I get nauseated at what that means and I picture a baby. "and she left me these packets for you to do."

He hands out the packets before letting us work. Not able to concentrate with him staring at me I go over to his desk where he is looking at his hand. "What the hell are you doing here Vancha?"

"Protecting you of course," he smiles. "My skin looks so strange, does it not?"  
"Vancha," I growl. "This is serious, how are you even here?"  
"I got here before the sun rose and Evanna gave me a charm to change my hair and my skin color. Apparently humans don't take too kindly to green hair and red skin."

"Wait you can't read or write?"

"I learned," he shrugs. "Evanna's a good teacher when she wants to be."

"Where is she?"  
"On business involving her father," he hisses. "Matt we really need you on our side. Harkat filled me in on what has occurred and it's best that you come with us away from here."

"This is my life Vancha, I can't just leave."

"Matt," Madison yells across the classroom and I shoot Vancha a dirty look before going over to my friend and help her with her work.

The rest of the morning goes relatively normal although I felt anything but normal. Gym was hard again. I'm so afraid that someone is going to trip and I'm going to wig out on them or something. Not very likely to happen, but I don't want to be a freak.

Dylan and I walk to lunch in silence, he doesn't want to talk to me and that's okay with me. He obviously doesn't know how to treat me after yesterday. I guess it's fine though. Definitely the better alternative than how he was asking to see my fangs yesterday. I mean come on it's hard enough that my nails are growing insanely fast and I have to use my teeth to keep them from growing so long that people notice. Holes in pockets are bad, holes in cheeks are way worse.

I feel as if I've had that thought before.

It's eerily quiet until my other three friends sit down. Anna sits next to me and I give her a quick kiss while Sam pretends to gag at us. Now that I think about it, I feel kind of bad for him since he is a fifth wheel and all; must be the guilt of eating him eating me. Kind of poetic if you think about it. All I know is that saying that I Dylan won't look at me and I won't look at Sam that this is going to be an awkward lunch hour.

Anna looks at me in with concern, "You didn't bring lunch?"

"Not hungry," I shrug and Dylan visibly relaxes a bit.

"When aren't you hungry?" Lindsay asks.

"He is hungry," Sam laughs and Dylan looks at me weirdly. "We just ate his entire house yesterday so he has no food anymore."  
"Funny," I roll my eyes. "My parents were pissed that you ate my Mom's cheesecake she slaved over by the way."

"Least you can do after almost killing me," he says with mock terror.

Dylan chokes on his food and Lindsay eyes him weirdly, "What the hell is up with you? You've been acting even weirder than Matt has today."

I don't even bother letting that get to me since I have been acting weird. "I don't know. Guess I'm just a little freaked out," he looks straight at me for the first time.

"Why?"

"He's just afraid I'll beat him at our match today," Sam chuckles. "Speaking of which, guess what?"

We all just shake our heads and shrug. "It's about Bill, he got suspended yesterday."

"Oh my gosh," Anna exclaims.

"Why?" Dylan asks, clearly as interested as me. Octa seems to be to for her head perks up.

Anna and Lindsay squeal, "Oh my gosh Matt there's a spider on you. Kill it."

Octa doesn't like this and jumps onto their food to scare them. She opens her mouth, ready to attack and I close my eyes so that they don't see my strange eyes and command Octa to back off. She does and crawls under the table, clearly annoyed that I wouldn't let her hurt them.

As I open my eyes I feel that they are normal and Dylan is caught between laughing at me and staying afraid. "Sorry she's my new pet I guess. She's been following me all day."

Nobody comments and Sam clears his throat, "As I was saying, Bill's gone."  
"Why?"

"The principal heard him talking before first period yesterday about wanting to tear someone's throat apart and drink his blood."  
Dylan tries to look nonchalant and does a terrible job, "So he got suspended for that?"

"Dylan's right," Anna says. "The school wouldn't suspend someone for that."

"There's more, they did a locker search over the weekend and found instructions to murder someone," he adds. "And by someone I mean Matt."

My rage gets the best of me and the light fixtures above us explode. Everyone screams and hides under the table. There's no need though for an automatic force field appears around our table as a protective bubble. Security makes us leave and my friends walk to the quad for the remainder of lunch. I follow them even though I'd rather be alone. There's always the chance someone is going to piss me off and I'll hurt them, but I don't want to look suspicious.

As we sit down a thought pops into Lindsay's head and she smiles, "Did you guys see the guy teaching bio today? Can you say attractive?"

"Extremely," Anna agrees in a dreamy voice.

I can't help but laugh, "What's funny?"

"Nothing," I assure them and shake my head. "Um Madison said the same thing."

"Dylan and I have bio next," Sam reminds us. "What's so great about this guy?"

"Well Mr. M has this dark hair and soulful eyes and a body to kill for and his skin is perfect."  
"Mr. M isn't attractive, he's just old. Hell I'm twenty times more hot than that."

Nobody comments on the last part, "Different Mr. M," I tell him. "This one's name is Mr. March and he's good friends with Ms. Tall," I say pointedly at Dylan.

"Seriously," he asks and I nod. "How the hell is that possible?"

"Don't ask me, I'm in the dark in case you forgot. Apparently he's here so I can talk to him though. You want to come after school?"

He looks hesitant but eventually nods while the rest of my friends look at us weirdly, "What the hell was that about?"

"Um he heard from Ms. Tall that I was the smartest student she's seen in a long time and wanted to see for himself. He wanted me to come after school to talk about some advanced class thing and Dyl always comes with me when I talk to Ms. Tall about that stuff for some reason."

They don't look as if they believe me but then Sam groans, "Damn it how hard did I fall yesterday because my knees been burning me but it looks healed?"

Dylan shuts down again and I purse my lips, "Um not that bad, but maybe it burns because we put some medicine on it."

That's when the bell rings and I get away from them before I am subjected to say more lies about yesterday. It unnerves me that he's still in pain though. I figured when the shadows or whatever miraculously healed him that he would be better. Guess I was wrong. Or did they do that on purpose?

And am I really talking about shadows as if they have feelings?

The second half of my day is pretty uneventful as well. News of Bill's suspension must have spread though for everyone stares at me shamelessly. My newfound super hearing allows me to hear everything people are saying about it and I now truly understand the saying ignorance is bliss.

Out of all the rumors I have to say that my favorite is that we're working together on a secret spy mission and one of us is a double agent. I would much rather be a super James Bond-esque spy than a resurrected half-vampire prince. And that's a lot better than the rumor that Bill and I are secretly married.

I have to say however that even though the rumor mill and school in general gave me a sense of normality it didn't fix anything. It was as if an alien took over my body for the day and it wasn't me anymore. I don't really belong in this world anymore. There's no way I can sit and learn algebra when I know the truth. But I also can't sit on a throne and go into battle like I'm expected to.

And I get the sense that this isn't the human me, the Matt I know and the past me arguing. I get the feeling that I've always had an issue with this. Must be a Halfling thing. All I know is that it's as if I'm floating in the world with no true sense of anything, being torn apart until there's nothing left of me. Kind of scary in a way.

A big part of me wants to skip seeing Vancha, but I know that won't work. He'd fine me someone will always find me. Part of me doesn't want to skip it either. That foreign part of me that isn't really foreign misses my friend and mentor and really wants to get to know him again. Over the course of a day it's insane how much the small voice has grown bigger and bigger. It must have something to do with the blood I ingested yesterday. But that terrifies me so I decide not to think about it.

Dyl and I meet up at his locker and walk silently into the biology classroom. I'm really going to have to talk to him because this elephant in the room between us is ridiculous. We're best friends and if my inhumanness is that big of an issue for him then he better just come out and say it before it makes people suspicious and pisses me off to the point of no return and the monster arises.

From what I remember I was never this angry or insane before. Wait that's wrong, I was a few times during the war when I wasn't depressed and when I died. The dream I had weeks ago, the first dream I had where I'm falling off of a cliff pops into my head and suddenly I don't want to remember that specific memory in too much detail. Thinking about your own death is a little creepy to say the least.

There's a note on the desk saying that he'll be back in a minute and my danger meter suddenly spikes. Vancha wouldn't do this, err I don't think anyway. Plus where would he go? There's no way he could be outside with the sun and all and where would he go in the school? I know there's no way he would be in the sewer. I specifically recall a time when we were looking for some vampaneze lord guy and he was forced to look in the sewers, promising afterwards that he would never do that again.

I couldn't agree more. From what I know I've seen a lot of terrible things in the sewer from my best friend hanging upside down to his death to seeing my ex best friend kill my mentor and father figure.

My head starts to hurt with all these memories and I drop to the floor, weak. This can't be a coincidence and I gesture Dylan to leave. He stands his ground though with a look of petrified fear in his eyes.

I turn to where he's looking and gulp, in front of me is the head of the vampaneze, the guy I know but don't, the guy who I know I have a long history with, the guy who wants to kill me…again.

And that's not the worst part. No, the worst part is that his eyes are glowing in the same way as mine do but in a much more sinister way. In them speak depths and all I see is fury towards me and hunger towards my best friend.


	22. Chapter 22

**The Reunion I Never Wanted**

He smiles at me menacingly, "Nice to see you again Matt."  
I growl as he says my name in disgust, "I'd say it's nice to see you again, but I don't even know your name."

"Of course you do, just as I know yours. Come on dude we were only best friends for how many years?"

"Steve," I whisper and from the corner of my eye I see Dylan strain to hear what I said.

"Much better, but don't go around saying that. I tend to keep that name under wraps, but saying that that is the name you knew me as I think it's only justice that I use it."  
"I said your name so it's only fair that I know yours," I reason.

This seems to amuse him, "Oh Matt, since when have I ever played fairly."

"Saying that you are a vampaneze you probably should," Dylan interjects and I glare at his stupidity. "At least that's what Vancha told us."

I bite my tongue to keep from pointing out that he also has broken many other rules such as using vampets, but I don't think it's really going to help us. Steve turns his attention to Dylan and starts stalking towards him. Instinct kicks in and I also leap towards Dylan, but in a protective manner. This doesn't go over to well with Steve who then snaps his fingers; Dylan screams as he is thrown through the air to the other side of the room, hitting a wall in the process.

My face contorts into a snarl and with my fingers out I slash Steve in the arm with my nails. Thankfully he doesn't see it coming and as he gasps in pain I run over to the other side of the room to make sure my friend is okay. He is and I start running out of the classroom to draw the fight away from Dylan.

Steve seems to figure out what I'm doing however and gets to the door faster than I do; pushing hard enough to send me flying to the window. He smirks and I pause for a second. This guy is obviously too smart for the few tricks I have up my sleeve. I get that once I was some war general, scratch that prince I was never a general, I think; anyway I should know some ways to get away from this guy or to win, but nothing comes to me.

As much as I would love to get rid of these intrusive memories and be myself again, it would be nice to have them so I could get out of this classroom alive.

What's confusing me though is that Steve isn't trying to kill me. He's trying to roughhouse me, a lot, but none of his blows have even had a fatal intent. Knowing that I'm wanted alive scares the hell out of me. I don't know what exactly they want to do with me, but any scenario I can come up with is not pretty at all.

I see Steve stalking towards me as if I were his prey, and I guess I was. But then again he shouldn't underestimate me. Looking at his eyes I can tell he thinks I'm down and too weak to fight, he's wrong though. I raise my hand up and the beakers crash over his head. Probably not effective, but he looks stunned enough that I gain the upper hand.

Running at an inhuman speed, I get over to the other side of the room where Steve is and punch him in the face so hard that he falls over. Not letting this lull me into false precaution, I take my hand and slash him with my nails. Blood trails down his torso and the smell hits me. Only it isn't that ambrosia of when Sam's blood hit my nose, this is nasty in a way and not in another.

Either way it doesn't distract me, I was a little worried about that for a second saying that I'm apparently a blood sucking monster and all though. Steve stands up and smirks at me before lunging forward and landing a kick in my gut. Groaning from the pain, I crouch over. He takes advantage of this and hits me over and over again until I fall down from the excruciating pain.

This seems to amuse Steve and he glares at me; the type of look that eats at your very soul. But this does more than just eat at my soul, it eats at me. I feel my flesh getting torn from my bones and my blood begins to boil. It takes everything I have not to give him the satisfaction of hearing my screams.

For the first time though, I see how we are so different from the rest of our races. Each of us has such a vast amount of power running through our veins. So much that right now as I'm thinking about it I can almost feel it wanting to escape my pores; but that could just be the pain talking. There really isn't anyone else like us. And if either of us were fighting a normal vampire/vampaneze or even a human the fight would be nonexistent. It would be too easy to kill someone without even trying.

Fighting each other is a different story all together. We have a history together, even if I cannot remember it, we have these vendettas towards one another that I also can't remember, we have hundreds of people telling us to hate each other, at least I imagine, and destiny is pitting us against each other. I don't remember most of that though, I don't know anything and can only speculate. What I do know though is that for some reason we have power that wants to destroy one another.

And at the moment there is no doubt in my mind that Steve is way more adept at his abilities than I am and seems to possess a lot more power.

Steve laughs at me and pulls a dagger out of thin air. I close my eyes and gulp, readying myself for the shard pain of the dagger, readying myself to die. But the pain never comes. Instead I open my eyes and gasp at the sight of a shadow man covering me and fighting against Steve. Something clicks inside of me and I snap, the shadow man bows to me and stops fighting Steve before holding on to him.

He shivers in fear and looks at me with fake bravado, "Always on the defensive aren't you Matt?"

"Oh Steve you're right," I snort sardonically. "You are more powerful than me, more powerful and at my mercy." I walk over to him and lean towards his ear before whispering, "But you seem to forget that it is not you, but I who am the Lord of the Shadows. And um I think that gives me a bit of edge over you."

The next thing I remember is coughing up my lungs and lying on a pew in the abandoned church. Harkat, Vancha, and Dylan are standing over me, blabbering away on the state of my condition. Arguing right now that something must be wrong because of how inhuman my eyes are at the moment. I calm myself down, but I don't feel them become emerald again.

"He's awake," I hear Vancha smile. "I can't leave you alone for one second can I your highness?"

I snort at what feels like a familiar jab and chuckle, immediately regretting it as my side begins to ache. Harkat shakes his head at me, "Try not to move Matt."

"I'm fine," I tell them and sit up slowly, groaning in the process and my eyes fall to Dylan. "You okay?"

He just rolls his eyes at me, "I'll live. Apparently I have a broken rib and arm and can't wrestle for a month, but I will anyway. There is no way Sam is going to beat me because I'm helping save the world."

Of course he'd still want to beat Sam and risk greater injury. His statement doesn't surprise me in the least. "Whatever Dyl, keep saying that when you're getting slammed to the ground and your ribs are sat on by some fat guy."

"Are you calling Sam fat or me weak? Because if it's the first then i agree Sam needs to lay off the ice cream and if it's the second then HEY!"

We laugh and Harkat shakes his head at us while Vancha just stands there confused. He clears his throat, "As much as I find your human antics funny, we have bigger issues at hand. Matt what do you remember?"  
I think about it for a second, "We were in the classroom waiting for you and Steve showed up. We bickered and fought. He was winning and there was a dagger about to stab me in the chest, the rest of the fight is fuzzy and all I know is that somehow I won and then woke up here. He's wickedly strong though and I don't want to run into him anytime soon."

Dylan looks at me confused, "Wait so you don't remember what happened?"

"That is what I just said."

"Well I saw the entire thing and you were about to die when suddenly that dude was pushed back and then you whispered something in his ear, but I couldn't hear it. The only word I got was shadows."

Vancha gulps as if reliving a bad memory, "Lord of the Shadows."

"What?" I ask him, but he just shakes his head.

"Before you died you gained a title, lord of the shadows, and that is all I have to say on the subject."

His voice shows how serious he is and I get the sense that I don't want to provoke him. "This means war doesn't it?"

The two nod at me and Dylan's face pales. "There's has been war for years," Harkat sighs. "It's nothing new."

I stand up and start to walk around, only to fall over in the process. Everyone laughs at me and I feel my eyes brighten even more as I stand up. "Not funny guys. Do you know what's wrong with me?"

Vancha answers me, "Broken ribs, concussion, sprained leg, broken foot, and a messed up arm. Like that time in the city when you had your fight with hook guy, not that was bad."

Harkat laughs, "Or that time with the burns, that was probably the worse. Hell all the trials hurt you pretty bad."

I had a dream about that, which did seem as if it was a little painful. "That wasn't me, it was someone who you want me to be."

"Harkat did say you were doing this. Matt it is you we are talking about, jut you in a past life."

"No, it isn't me," I argue. "I don't know anything, I'm not a hero like this other guy."

"Dude, you kind of looked badass to me," Dylan points out and immediately shuts up as soon as I turn to glare at him."

I sigh, "Let's just not have this argument right now. What the hell am I supposed to do about this," I gesture to my body. "I have to get home and see my family. They'll ask way too many questions if I come home looking as if I just got beat up."

"Which you did," Dylan says and I glare at him again. I guess the whole sucking our friend's blood thing isn't bothering him anymore."

This isn't going to end well however you look at it. There's no way I can go home like this and there is no way I can't show up at home. Dylan would let me lie and say I'm at his house, but my parents freak at me sleeping out on school nights. If I went home I can just see my mom's face. I've already ended up in the hospital once this year for the whole fighting thing, if she sees me now there is no way she won't press charges on the school, and that is something I cannot deal with right now.

Of course there's also the whole her grounding my ass for life thing too…

I'll worry about that later though, for now maybe I should worry about being able to move. I hop over to the pew and sit down. Harkat comes over and splints my leg and my wrist. Apparently he worked on my ribs while I was out of it. He also hands me a pair of crutches and even though they're a pain, I can actually move.

Suddenly struck with an idea I bid Harkat and Vancha farewell, promising them that I'd be back in about an hour or two and make my way outside with Dylan. He's rambling the entire way about how awesome I was fighting Steve and how I had to teach him how to do some of that. I however do not share his enthusiasm and just nod along and put in a few words here and there.

Eventually we go our separate ways and I take a deep breath as I walk into my house. I close my eyes, hoping I can get away without Mom and Dad seeing the inhuman color in them since as hard as I try I can't get them to go back to normal. I walk into the kitchen and grab a snack before going into the living room where I see Mom cleaning.

Well this was it, "Hey Mom."

"Oh hi honey, how was your day?"

She doesn't look at me, a good thing so far. "Um okay I guess, I met a new friend today," I laugh at the irony of that.

"That's nice sweetie. Can you go clean your room?"

"Sure, but um can I maybe sleep at Dylan's tonight? We have to finish a project and it will take us most of the night."

Shit, she's turning to look at me. "Matt, you know how I feel about…" she trails off and screams.

"Don't worry, it's fine."

"What's wrong with your eyes? And how did you get hurt?"

Instead of answering her I just stare into her eyes until I feel her mind melt into mine, "You will let me sleep at Dylan's tonight and will not call his Mom to make sure everything is okay. Understood?" She nods and I continue, "You will also not remember the state you saw me in today."

With that I walk upstairs to grab a change of clothes and make my way back outside. Once safely away I release Mom and make my way to the church to meet up with Vancha and Harkat.

During the walk guilt starts to get the best of me. I just controlled my Mom's mind. If I did that to my Mom what's going to stop me from doing it to anyone? A huge part of my humanity disappears and by now I feel so nonhuman that I don't even know if I can call myself one. Humans don't suck blood, humans don't have preternatural abilities, humans aren't monsters like me.

By the time I'm at the church my head hurts from all the heavy thinking and guilt. My body hurts from walking so much and all I want to do is sit down. Vancha sees my struggle and helps me over to the bench to sit down. He also hands me a bowl of soup and I nod in thanks.

"I dealt with my family, they won't bother me tonight."

"You know Matt as much as I hate to say anything, it might be a good idea to get away from there for good."

I growl at him and the wind starts to pick up, making everything fly around. Lightning and thunder strike. "How dare you suggest such a thing! They're my family and I am not leaving them no matter what."

"Calm down, it was just a suggestion to keep them safe. Vampaneze will target them. Not to mention the fact that humans can't handle tempers as bad and destructive as yours."

Okay, so maybe he has a point. The small storm stops and Vancha laughs, "You my friend are quite hilarious. Now let's go hunting, it will help your injuries heal and might just get rid of your eye problems."

Wait hunt? As in hunt humans? I'm screwed.


	23. Chapter 23

**Am I Human?**

Too scared to say anything against Vancha, I just nod and silently follow him into the heart of town. I would never go through with it though. How the hell could I hunt a human and drink their blood if I'm still human? Well okay only half of me is human. But that still makes me half of a cannibal.

I mean I just accepted the fact that I was a vampire yesterday. 24 hours isn't really enough time to get accustomed to the whole drinking blood thing. And really I wasn't hungry. Maybe yesterday before I snacked on my best friend I was…but now I'm not. Hopefully there's some alternative to this whole blood ordeal. Animal meat is fulfilling to humans so why couldn't the blood be fulfilling to a Halfling.

It doesn't take us a long time to get to what Vancha calls our "hunting grounds," but Vancha sits there complaining about the time it takes us. Apparently he would have preferred flitting which I remember is running really fast. But alas since I'm only a Halfling I can't flit. Or at least I'm not supposed to be able to, there's a chance I can since I'm so different.

But even if I could it's impossible given my injuries. I could barely walk let alone run, so it took us a good fifteen minutes instead of one minute. I roll my eyes at his complaining though. Seriously this guy is centuries old and he's whining like a five year old. Except knowing me I whined quite a bit at, well I don't know how old I got to, so I imagine I have no room to talk.

He pulls me over to a tree and he pulls me behind it, hidden from human eyes. I clutch my head in pain as I'm transported into a memory. This time I'm looking at some middle aged fat man in a boy scout's suit walking home. All I do is stare at him and he comes up to make sure the little boy in the suit is okay. With him distracted a figure with orange hair and a scar along his face jumps from the tree and attacks the man. I stand there with a feeling of disgust.

Back in reality, I frown. I don't know why I was in a suit or how young I must have been when I was blooded, but something about the memory made me feel as if this was not the first time sucking human blood has repulsed me.

Vancha finds his target and breaths in his face, effectively knocking him out. With his nail he cuts a line along his arm and begins to feed. Sickened, I turn away. He gestures for me to take a turn and I shake my head vehemently in the same manner the boy, err I did in the vision. The vampire in front of me just scowls.

"Matt you have to feed, look how injured you are. Surely you want to feel better."

"I do, but not at the expense of my humanity," I snap at him.

He takes a step back and runs a hand through his hair, "It's not something you can say no to Matt, and drinking blood is who you are. You won't hurt the man or anything."

"Do you forget that I'm human?" I remind him. "I won't drink from one of my own."

Instead of saying anything he just picks the man up and begins him over to me, cutting his skin that healed itself and putting the running blood up to my nose. It smells really good and I'm about to cave in when I realize what I'm about to do and scream. The man and Vancha are pushed back by an invisible force and end up about a hundred yards away from me.

My sensitive hearing picks up Vancha's laughter and I scowl. What about this was so funny? He sees my glare and laughs even harder. Seriously what about this situation is funny? I growl at him and he is suddenly flying through the air, eventually landing at the base of a tree. However I still am incredibly pissed and as I stare at him, he screams out in agony.

Shaking my head, I return to reality and Vancha just stares at me. "Well on the bright side your eyes are back to normal." I still glare at him and he sighs before grabbing me and throwing me onto his back and flitting back towards the church.

When we get back Harkat looks at us and laughs, "Why's Matt on your back?"

"He realized how princely he was and refused to walk."

The two crack up and I clear my throat. Vancha turns around and sees me then gently puts me on the pew. "Actually Vancha wanted me to feed off of a helpless human and I refused."

"So you're still on that?" he asks and raises an eyebrow. Well I think he was raising an eyebrow…it's kind of hard to tell with him.

"On what? I'm not going to kill a person," I tell him seeing Vancha's face I continue. "And don't tell me I wouldn't be killing anyone because I've killed a friend by drinking them dry before!"

"Really?" Vancha asks with interest.

"Which you did on purpose to save Sam's memories."

"Wait what?" This was new information to me, well so was the other thing but I at least said that myself even though I don't recall the actual event. And the fact that his name was Sam was a bit disturbing.

"Yeah, he was dying and you wanted to save his memories. Actually he's the reason you like pickled onions so much."

"That carried over to this life," Vancha wrinkles his nose. "They smell awful and taste even worse." I glare at him and he continues, "Now blood on the other hand, now that smells and tastes good."

"Vancha has a point Matt," Harkat sighs. "It will definitely help you feel better."

"Larten would hate to see you like this," Vancha mumbles so softly I don't think I was supposed to hear it.

I growl and somehow I am pushed down, no longer in control of my body in a way. "How dare you use his memory in vain like that! You have no right to talk about him in any way. Neither of you, mention him again and I will hurt you." Deep down where my consciousness is I know the name is familiar and strikes a chord, but I cannot figure out why.

A tear slips down my cheek and the rain begins outside. "Just stop talking about any of this." I see a glaze sweep over their eyes and I groan as a surge of power ripples through my chest. Both Harkat and Vancha frown a moment later.

"What were we just talking about?" Vancha asks. "My memory seems to have escaped me. Please tell me Evanna isn't here, she does enjoy her tricks"

In control of my body once again, I look down sheepishly, "Um that may have been my fault. You guys pissed me off."

"And how did we accomplish this?"

"Let's not talk about it," I say quickly and change the subject. "Why don't you tell me more about this war I seem to be in the middle of."

This does the trick and for the next two hours the two of them debrief me on everything I need to know. But the problem is I don't know if I want to know it. I mean part of me feels deep in my bones that this is what I need to do, but the other part of me wants nothing to do with this. Really the only thing I can be sure of is that I really just want to keep everyone safe. And yes fighting in this war would save people, but I'd be hurt in the process and there'd be casualties, my friends.

Neither of them mentions any specific people or events, and I'm fine with that. I may not be the person they want, but whenever I hear things it feels as if it is me reliving the memories. And well, I don't think I could deal with the guilt that comes with them. Hearing names of people who've I indirectly killed, definitely not my idea of fun.

Eventually I get bored of hearing about bloodshed and lay down on the uncomfortable pew; surprisingly falling asleep much easier than I anticipated given how much pain I'm in. Except the second I drift out of consciousness I find myself smack dab in another one of my uncanny dreams. Octa is there to greet me and leads me through an endless land of fog and darkness to my school's football field.

I look down and see that I'm in my uniform and have the ball in my hand with my team around me. As I hike the ball and go into the soothing routine of playing football, I notice the other team. It's full of vampires and vampaneze and the guy who's making his way over to sac me is me.

Or it would be me if I was pale and my eyes were doing the whole silver and black and red swirling thing. I was smirking, and my face was stained red with fresh blood.

He, or me, or whatever runs through the offensive line and looks straight at me before running as fast as possible towards me. I try to run away, but I can only run at a human speed and even though it's fast for most people, my speed is not match for vampire speed. I throw the ball away before he tackles me.

As I land on the ground Octa crawls onto my head and I am rapidly disappearing, until I am no longer on the field and sitting on a sunny beach. My eyes bulge out of my head when I see the orange haired guy with the scar sitting in front of me in a tanning bed. For some reason I laugh and he scowls at me, "I don't know why you're laughing Matt. You're the one who managed to get tackled in that idiotic game of yours."

I don't even bother trying to figure out how he knows this. All I know is that for some reason the sight in front of me is a bit disturbing and I remember a conversation with a pretty girl about buying this man a tanning bed. I found it funny then as well and I guess it's because he's a vampire. Octa seems freaked out too, well I guess she is since it is hard to figure out what a spider means, and touches my head again.

Now the two of us, and Octa, are standing in a trailer with a coffin in it. "Much better," the guy says and sits down in a chair. I follow his actions and sit down next to him.

"I remember you."

"You do?" he asks with uncontained surprise and glee.

"Well not really," I admit. "But you're Larten Crepsley, I know that. And I've had a lot of flashbacks with you in it. I know that I know you, I just don't know all of the details."

"That's a start. Now why did you call me here Matt? Not that I don't mind seeing you and all, but I was in the middle of something."

"You mean that you were in the middle of something with Arra," I raise an eyebrow, getting a flash of a woman who looks really strong and could kick my ass any say of the week.

He glares at me, "Not funny or appropriate, but I'll let it slide given that without me you haven't learned any manners. Now what do you need help with?"

"I don't know, all I know is that I fell asleep and ended up on a football field trying to not get killed by myself."

"I'm aware of that, but what happened back in the waking world."

I think about it, "Um Steve almost killed me, but somehow I apparently defeated him because I'm some lord guy. Then I refused to feed and got into a fight with Vancha and Harkat and then I fell asleep."

"Still refusing to feed?"

"Don't start with me too!"  
"It's my responsibility to take keep you in line your royal highness," he laughs before getting somber again. "I won't have this discussion at the moment, it's not the right time. But if you insist on being stupid, on your own head be it."

"I'm not being stupid…I'm being _human_!"

"I know, thus why you're being stupid. You aren't human Matt, you're not even a vampire in a way."

"You mean the whole lord of shadows thing? What does that mean exactly?"

"I died before it mattered," he says matter of factly and I frown at his attitude. "But being in paradise gives you a better perspective on things and allows you to see a lot. Basically it is exactly as it sounds."

"Shadows aren't alive," except they kind of were, I've seen that with my own two eyes.

Mr. Crepsley must have mind powers or something because he seems to know that I don't agree with what I just said, "You have the power to control the shadows and they will don anything to protect you."

"Is Steve a lord too?"

"No, the first war decided which of you two would gain the title and powers."  
"Then why is he more powerful?"  
"He's farther along with his transition than you are. As you could tell he has all of his memories and with that comes your powers. And don't ask about what you can and can't do, I'm not really sure."

"Why do we even have these powers though?"

He sighs, "I don't really know, I would bet the only one who does know is Desmond Tiny. He likes to meddle in the lives of mortals, but he can't actually do it himself, and no I don't know what he is exactly. Somehow he picked you and Steve and gave you these gifts or curses, whichever way you see it, and here you are."

"They weren't developed last time I was alive were they?"

"No, or they didn't exist I'm not really sure."

I nod and feel a pounding on my head, "I think someone's literally breaking my skull.

The dead vampire grimaces and curses, "Its Mr. Tiny, as you know last time we spoke he got through, this time your stronger and could keep in out, obviously you aren't strong enough though. This is where we must end our talk."

"But I have so many more questions! I'm not ready to leave and I still don't have any answers!"

"I know and I'm sorry, but we will speak again soon. Tell Vancha and Harkat that you have seen me, they will give you answers then. And speak to Evanna, she has answers that nobody else has."

Octa comes to touch my forehead again as I scream in pain, "Just tell me one more thing," I plead. "What the hell was my name?"

He chuckles and Octa transports me back to the football field. I start to hike the ball once again and see the anti-me on the other team, running towards me. This time I don't let him get to me. I'm not human so maybe I shouldn't be acting like one…but I'm not going to become a monster like him, I won't let the monster in me win.

I look at everyone's shadows and wave my hand. The shadows and the people all disappear. Leaving me vs. me. This time I look at the anti-me's shadow and take a deep berath before asking in my head for it to steal away the anti-me's strength. It does as I ask and I'm left as the only one on the field.

**Some lines are from the Vampire's Assistant by Darren Shan, hopefully you can find the two lines I used.**


	24. Chapter 24

**Creative Trickery**

The next morning I carefully get ready without waking Vancha up. Considering how he seems on top of everything and into being insanely careful it actually surprises me that he is such a deep sleeper. Harkat on the other hand only needs sleep a few hours a sleep if any and is awake. Apparently the past version of me, err if I believe that it is me, was not very sociable in the mornings and he knows to give me some space.

He does have a cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich waiting for me however and I nod my thanks to him, too out of it to talk. Mornings suck in general and are just much worse when you add strange nightmares and an evil destiny that mess with your sleep. I take a sip of my coffee and almost instantly feel better. Not only am I less tired, but my aches and pains seem to go away with every sip.

The wonderful power of caffeine.

I am still not positive I can walk all the way to school though and I decide I might as well try to use this lord of the shadows thing to my advantage. As much as I want to stay out of this war, it seems as if Steve is not going to let me stay out of it. Maybe I am fine with him attacking me, but he is now gone after my friends and family and I am not having them die because of me.

After my one worded goodbye to the Little Person, and grab the extra giant thermos he got me, I head outside. I hurt worse today than I did yesterday, but the more I wake up the better it feels. Still, it hurts like hell walking. Apparently, vampire healing is not as great as Vancha made it out to be. Nonetheless my plan will still work. The shadows are going to get me to school.

The only problem is that I have no clue how it works or if there are any rules with this whole shadow manipulation thing I got going on; but I will never learn if I do not try. So, like the loser I am, I take a deep breath and start talking to the emptiness around me. "Hey shadows or whatever you want to be called. It would be really nice to have help getting to school so get me there."

Nothing happens and I try again, this time with more conviction in my voice, "I cannot get to school and I command you to get me there." As if by magic, my shadow walks over to the tree closest to me and as it touches it, a door of shadows appears. I shrug and walk up to the makeshift door, the shadow me opens it and I step into the void.

Traveling by shadow is the strangest thing in the world. The only way to describe it is bitter cold. I felt as if my insides were turning to ice and I was being sucked through an endless wormhole. And even though I knew that it was happening instantaneously, it felt a lot longer. I literally felt time stop, but it was also going on forever. It was completely dark, as in cave dark where it was impossible to see. There was no noise; it was still. Yet it did not feel hopeless and terrible, as I would have predicted given how it sounds. Instead, I got a sense of peace as I was drowning in oblivion. The shadows were guarding me from any dangers that may come from this teleporting-like travel. Deep down I knew that they would never harm me. For the first time outside of my dreamland, I felt like the Lord of the Shadows.

Suddenly, my body jerks forward and it is as if I am being spit out of a straw and back into the real world. I am surprised that even though I just appeared out of what would seem to be thin air, nobody even notices me and I walk into a giant crowd. I end up next to Anna and kiss her on the top of the head. She screams for a second before laughing, "Matt, I didn't see you there."

Of course, she did not; I think I was invisible for a few seconds until it was safe to appear. "That's your loss, you know missing out on all this sexiness for a few precious minutes."

She laughs in amusement at me and I wrap my arm around her, wincing in the process at the pain of moving. Seriously, the shadows couldn't have healed me as well? "You okay?"

I nod, not wanting to worry her and take another long sip of the second thermos of coffee I brought. It is a little weird though, I mean I always have loved coffee, but I have never been this addicted to it before. But maybe liking coffee and needing it to wake up is part of the whole I am half nocturnal creature thing.

Anna and I meet up with the rest of our friends in our usual spot and a very bandaged and tired looking Dylan notices my bruises and smirks. I glare at him, "What happened to you Dyl?"

"You owe us the same answer, don't you start on my boyfriend too," Lindsay retorts. "You're pretty much as bruised as him and are limping."

"Not to mention grimacing since I saw you this morning," Anna says and puts her hand on her hip, her telltale sign that she means business.

I look at Dylan, begging for help and he clears his throat to get everyone's attention, "I told you guys that Matt and I were mugged last night when we were snuck out of my place last night for a food run."

"And I told you that was BS," Sam rolls his eyes. "Matt's parents never let him out on school nights and you would never not invite me over too."

"It was last minute and we were doing a history thing." It was weak, but it was all I had.

A part of me wanted to just compel them to forget about it, but I did not want to do that anymore. It made me feel really bad. It could have been my imagination, but I am sure I heard Dylan tell me to control them, but I did not see his mouth move so I must be going crazy. Right?

The bell rings and I take another swig of coffee before walking to class. Dylan starts following me even though he is supposed to be heading to his math class on the opposite side of the school. He yawns, "Ugh I'm beat, and I got no sleep last night since it hurt so much to move."

"At least you didn't have Mr. Tiny knocking on your head."

"He got into your head?"

"No I stopped him before he could, but he tried all night." I do not mention my dream, it was too personal, but he believes the half-truth.

He yawns again, "Would Ms. Tall excuse us from class to nap?"

"I doubt it," I tell him, "it would be too conspicuous."

"Then at least give me some of your caffeine," he says and without asking just grabs my thermos and takes a giant sip. Without warning, he spits it out and into my eyes. My eyes change and I growl at him. Quickly, I regain control and shift back to normal.

"That is not coffee."

"What do you mean? Of course, it is coffee."

Dylan thinks for a second and rips the top open, sniffing the coffee and wrinkling his nose before looking mortified. "No, hell no! That is frickin sick! Matt would you say this is the best cup of coffee you've ever tasted."  
"Yes," I answer without hesitation.

"Did you feel less pain after drinking it?" I nod and he shudders. "This is spiked coffee dude."

"There's no alcohol in that trust me."

"I mean spiked with a red drink that you seem to be craving lately."

I must have been hit in the head harder than I thought yesterday. How did I miss that? When I see Harkat later, I am going to kill him. I do not know how to kill someone who is already dead, but I will figure it out! He frickin laced my coffee with blood! No wonder I felt stronger and the pain lessened after drinking it. I sniff it and almost gag when I realize it is not just blood, but I am sure it is human blood.

My friend seems to sense my mood and takes a step back before I accidently murder him. He also seems terrified and I just hope it is because of my angry demeanor and nor because of the fact that I was drinking blood. Wait, that means that he just drank human blood. And I thought I was a cannibal? At least half if not more of me is not human.

"You want to skip today?"

I consider the idea for a moment, "As appealing as that sounds, I don't want to leave and have Steve come and attack the school while I'm not here."

He nods, "Makes sense, but can you at least get me a toothbrush and some mouth wash? Blood has an insanely nasty aftertaste that reminds me of crap."

"And you know what that tastes like because," I raise my eyebrow. "And you call me weird for drinking blood."

Dyl gives me a death glare, "You know that story and I am never repeating it again."

I laugh and wink at his shadow that enters Dylan's mouth and washes it out. I silently thank the thing and apologize for using it for such a trivial task. The thing does not seem to mind though, so my guilt disappears.

We go our separate ways and I walk into biology ten minutes late, I had to go and find some gum first so my breath did not smell like blood. Ms. Tall looks at me as I walk in and shakes her head at me. I shrug and walk over to my seat. I pretty much sit there not paying attention to the entire lesson though. Really, with everything that is going on, our lesson on DNA does not hold my interest.

Class ends and after second period, I reluctantly head to gym class. I am still in way too much pain to deal with the class today. If I feigned being hurt or sick though, I know coach would kill me. He has this issue with people not doing what they are supposed to do and makes us do everything even with a broken leg.

Sometimes he can be more of a drill sergeant than any of the thousand and one vampires who trained me. I have the feeling that Vanez would get along well with coach.

Halfway through the class, Sam kicks a soccer ball at my head and I fight the urge to rip him into pieces. Damn my strange blood that compels me to violence. Actually now that I think about it, I should probably ask someone about that. If vampires are supposed to be peaceful then why do I get the urge to go on a destructive rampage all the time?

Nonetheless, I do not let it look as if Sam has fazed me at all and from the corner of my eye, I see him getting pissed at my lack of interest in anything today. He runs up to me and slaps me on the back of my head. It should not have hurt, but in the state I am in, well let me just say it was extremely painful.

"What was that for?"

"The fact that you have been a real bastard lately Matt. You almost never talk to me anymore and you and Dylan are obviously keeping secrets. So grow a pair and tell me what the hell is going on or I swear to god I will…"

"Will what?" I snicker when he can't come up with anything to say.  
"Well you know," he says lamely and I laugh for a second before sighing. I didn't realize I was being so terrible to him. Before I can come up with yet another dumb excuse to tell him, I feel someone looking at me and twist around to see Ms. Tall with a worried look in her eyes.

"Yeah and what's going on with you and the weird sub."

"I'd tell you Sam, I really would, but I can't."

On that note, I jog away from him and to Ms. Tall, ignoring Coach who is yelling at me to come back. From what I can remember though, the only time I have ever seen Evanna freaked out is when her brother was killed. Instead of jogging towards the building, I am running at full speed towards Evanna who is on the ground next to a very tall man who looks like a ringmaster. She's holding his bloody body in her hands and wishing he had stepped in sooner.

The next thing I know I am standing next to her. She looks at me strangely and for a brief second a look of utter despair shins through her eyes, but it is quickly replaced by worry. "Something has come up."

"What?"

"Word is that my Father has become quite impatient. And trust me when I say he is not fun when he is impatient."

"How can I hide from destiny?"

"You can't," she whispers. "But he's not impatient towards you at the moment. Actually he finds you quite amusing."

I raise an eyebrow and she sighs, "He's become very upset at Steve for not having anything to show. From the sound of it he may now be going after your family."

This does not surprise me. "I'm going home. Can you cover for me?"

She nods and a sad smile crosses her lips as her hand drifts towards her stomach. That foreign part of me takes over again and I am pushed away, losing control of my body. "Evanna, what happened to your babies?"

"My Father," she cries. "He interfered in affairs that he had no business touching. His experiments on my children unleashed the hidden monsters and they killed them."

"You would have made a great mother," I tell her and she wipes a tear away. "But Vancha and Gannen as Dads, not really."

As she laughs a tear rolls down her cheek, "They were dreadful to begin with, especially with children that were both vampire, vampaneze, and witch. But they were learning. That's how Gannen died. He was protecting his children."

Out of the blue she hugs me and the second her arms touch me, the real me is able to regain control. "Wish me luck," I sigh and step into the shadows.


End file.
